Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help Integrated Care Boards to develop Centres for Dental Development.

As proposed Centres for Dental Development are developed by integrated care boards (ICBs) in England, we will work closely and collaboratively with areas to support their creation. NHS England is working with ICBs to develop a resource for publication, to support ICBs with considering how to establish a Centre in their area.

Centres for Dental Development have the potential to support recruitment and retention in an area, however, they will not replicate the role of dental schools in training and supplying the dentistry workforce of the future. Individual centres will be driven locally, in alignment with the ICB strategy to address health inequalities and drive improvements in the quality of oral health care.