Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the interim evaluation of the Starting Well Scheme will be published.

The Starting Well programme was established by NHS England to reach out to children not regularly being seen by a dentist in 13 high needs areas. NHS England has advised that there are currently over 200 practices participating in the programme. However, data is not held about the number of children who have benefitted since its launch.

NHS England has advised that the Starting Well programme board has taken a decision not to publish an interim report but anticipates that the full report will be published by the end of this year.

NHS England has also developed Starting Well Core, an offer made available to all local dental commissioners in England. The aim is to promote early preventative care for children aged 0-2 as well as increasing dental access and attendance. NHS England has confirmed that as of 31 March 2019, approximately 1,400 NHS England dental practices were participating in Starting Well Core. NHS England advises that participation has been defined as any practice holding a contract to deliver primary care dental services where the local commissioning team had varied the contract to remunerate for Units of Dental Activity delivered in excess of 102% (up to a maximum of 104%) of the National Health Service contract value, attributable to children aged 0-2 years, for the 2018/19 financial year.