Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS dental contracts have been handed back 7 February 2024.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Monthly data on the Units of Dental Activity (UDA) delivered is published by the NHS Business Services Authority, although this data has an approximate two-month time lag, and therefore we expect data for February 2024 to be published around Mid-May. Otherwise, UDA delivery data is available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/english-contractor-monthly-general-dental-activity
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Oral Statement of 7 February 2024 on NHS Dentistry: Recovery and Reform, Official Report, columns 251-253, what her planned timetable is for the deployment of mobile dental teams in schools; and what criteria she plans to use to determine their locations.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our plan to recover and reform the National Health Service will ensure that children can access preventative care. We will be deploying dental teams to bring preventative dental services such as fluoride varnish directly to children. Dental teams will visit state primary schools in the most need, with higher levels of child tooth decay, and provide fluoride varnish treatments and advice. Starting later this year, we will deploy mobile dental teams into schools in under-served areas, to provide advice and deliver preventative fluoride varnish treatments to more than 165,000 children, strengthening their teeth and preventing tooth decay.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of dental practices that have announced that they plan to withdraw from NHS contracts since 7 February 2024.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Monthly data on the Units of Dental Activity (UDA) delivered is published by the NHS Business Services Authority, although this data has an approximate two-month time lag, and therefore we expect data for February 2024 to be published around Mid-May. Otherwise, UDA delivery data is available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/english-contractor-monthly-general-dental-activity
Oct. 09 2023
Source Page: Primary Dental Services Statement of Financial Entitlements (Amendment) Directions 2023Found: Primary Dental Services Statement of Financial Entitlements (Amendment) Directions 2023
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which dental practices in Norfolk have been accepting new NHS patients since 1 March 2024.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Dentistry Recovery Plan, backed by £200 million, will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for National Health Service dental patients. It will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. A New Patient Premium is supporting dentists to take on new patients and since the end of January, nearly 500 more practices have said they are open to new patients. No estimates are currently available on the number of new patients seen by dental practices in Norfolk but we are committed to evaluating the impacts of the measures included in our plan, and we will publish monthly data on progress once this is available. The Find a Dentist website allows people to see which practices in their area have said they are accepting new patients which is available here: https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of children unable to access NHS dentistry in England; and whether she has set a target date by which all children in England will be able to access an NHS dentist.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Dentistry Recovery Plan will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients, and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. The Dentistry Recovery plan also sets out a new emphasis on prevention and good oral health in children. As part of this plan, our 'Smile for Life' initiative includes supporting nurseries and early years settings to incorporate good oral hygiene into daily routines, and providing advice to expectant parents on how to protect their baby’s teeth. The plan will deploy mobile dental teams into schools to provide advice and deliver preventative treatments to more than 165,000 children. Data on the number of children who have been seen by a National Health Service dentist in the last 12 months is available at the following link:
Data is also available on the number of adults who have tried to get an NHS dentist appointment in the last 24 months, and whether they were or were not successful. This data is available at the following link:
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps her Department has taken to support access to dentists in (a) Penrith and The Border constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want to make sure that everyone needing a National Health Service dentist can access one. Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry in England will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. This is especially important for those who live in rural or coastal communities where we know access can be particularly challenging.
Our plan includes a new Golden Hello scheme for dentists who want to move to those areas which persistently struggle to attract dentists into NHS work. A Golden Hello of £20,000 will be offered per dentist, for a total of up to 240 dentists.
There are other measures in our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will help to improve access across all areas of the country. The new patient premium is designed to support dentists to see patients who may not have seen an NHS dentist for some time, and is offered in recognition of the additional time that may be needed for practices to assess, stabilise, and manage patients’ oral health needs. We will also raise the minimum Unit of Dental Activity rate from £23 to £28, supporting practices across the country to deliver more NHS care.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many extra (a) appointments and (b) treatments will be delivered through each element of the dentistry recovery plan.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want to make sure that everyone needing a National Health Service dentist can access one. Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment.
The methodology underpinning this modelling has been shared with the Health and Social Care Select Committee and has also been placed in the libraries for both Houses. This includes information on the estimated number of treatments and appointments delivered by each of the interventions in our dentistry recovery plan.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how her Department determines the performance target for units of dental activity for each dental practice.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England.
The current General Dental Service (GDS) contract and Personal Dental Service (PDS) agreement were introduced in 2006. The majority of contracts which deliver routine, or mandatory, dental services are legacy arrangements from pre-2006, and the contracted Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) under these contracts generally reflect the treatment volumes that were required from each practice prior to the new arrangements coming into force.
Activity levels for any new GDS contracts or PDS agreements would be determined as part of the procurement process, taking into account oral health needs assessments undertaken by ICBs, to identify areas of need and to determine the priorities for investment.
Contractors are expected to deliver 96 to 102% of their agreed activity each year. Where contracts deliver less than 96%, the value of the undelivered activity is recouped from the contractor. Undelivered activity between 96 to 100% may be carried forward into the next financial year. Activity greater than 100% may be funded to 110%, if there is a local arrangement with the ICB, or may be deducted from the activity requirements of the next financial year.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much (a) NHS and (b) private work was completed by GDC registered dentists who qualified (i) in the UK, (ii) overseas and (iii) in total in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Primary care dentistry in the National Health Service is delivered through contracts structured around Units of Dental Activity (UDAs). Each treatment is allocated a number of UDAs in proportion to the complexity and amount of work required. The following table shows the number of UDAs delivered by dentists who have qualified within the United Kingdom and outside thereof whilst working in the NHS in England for 2016/17 onwards:
Year | UK Qualified UDA Delivered | Non-UK Qualified UDA Delivered | Other UDA Delivered | Total UDA Delivered |
2016/17 | 48,825,392 | 26,394,403 | 10,644,608 | 85,864,403 |
2017/18 | 48,640,153 | 26,323,343 | 8,363,069 | 83,326,565 |
2018/19 | 49,482,862 | 27,192,292 | 6,528,618 | 83,203,772 |
2019/20 | 48,144,326 | 27,032,548 | 4,666,855 | 79,843,728 |
2020/21 | 15,260,168 | 8,265,064 | 927,591 | 24,452,823 |
2021/22 | 35,781,811 | 20,777,093 | 1,210,218 | 57,769,122 |
2022/23 | 43,918,652 | 25,763,340 | 486,695 | 70,168,687 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority
Notes: