Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reform NHS dental contracts to ensure that they prioritise prevention.
Answered by Lord Markham - 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. This included the transfer of all funding, Units of Dental Activity, and the management responsibility for National Health Service dentistry.
The current NHS dental contract already requires dental services to provide preventative care and treatment. To support dentists with this, NHS England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities have produced a comprehensive toolkit for dentists, providing evidence-based interventions and advice on how dental health professionals can improve and maintain their patient’s oral health. This guidance is available on the GOV.UK website, in an online-only format.
As set out in Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, we are working on further reforms to the 2006 contract, in discussion with the dental profession, to properly reflect the care needed by different patients, and more fairly remunerate practices. We expect to develop options for consultation with the dental profession in advance of a further announcement later this year. Any changes would be phased in from 2025 onwards. The plan also includes a range of measures which will prevent poor oral health, particularly in the youngest children, including dental teams providing preventative advice and treatment to reception-age children in the most under-served areas, and a new Smile for Life programme which will provide education and advice for nurseries and other early years settings.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to reduce waiting lists of young people waiting for braces.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
More National Health Service orthodontic care is being delivered, with the Units of Orthodontic Activity having increased by 5.7% when compared to pre-pandemic figures, from 4.1 million in 2018/19 to 4.4 million in 2022/23. This suggests more NHS orthodontic care is being commissioned and delivered.
From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to involve patient groups, to undertake oral health need assessments to identify areas of need, and to determine the priorities for investment.
NHS England has published guidance to support commissioners in taking advantage of the opportunities offered through additional services, which includes orthodontic services, and further services, by using flexible commissioning to tailor services to meet local population oral health needs. Further information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the demographics of North Shropshire constituency; and what plans she has to take account of those demographics in the ICB budget for dentistry.
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 the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to involve patient groups, to undertake oral health needs assessments to identify areas of need, and to determine the priorities for investment.
Our plan to recover and reform National Health Service 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.
Our plan sets out a number of actions to incentivise dentists to carry out NHS work. A new patient premium will support dentists to take on new patients, our Golden Hello incentives will encourage dentists into under-served areas, and we will raise the minimum Units of Dental Activity rate to £28 this year, making NHS work more attractive and sustainable.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the number of children aged ten and under that received dental (a) treatment and (b) surgery under general anaesthetic in each year since 2015.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data for children aged ten years old and under that have received dental treatment and surgery under general anaesthetic is not held centrally. We want to improve oral hygiene and access to dental care for all children, regardless of where in England they live. Access to dentistry is improving, and last year around 800,000 more children saw a National Health Service dentist.
On 7 February 2024 we published Our Plan to Recover and Reform NHS Dentistry. The Dentistry Recovery Plan will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients, and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments. The plan also sets out a new emphasis on prevention and good oral health in children. This 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 also deploy mobile dental teams into schools in under-served areas to provide advice and deliver preventative treatments to more than 165,000 children.
Asked by: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
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 column 251, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using her powers under the Professional Qualifications Act 2022 to increase the number of foreign dentists qualified to practice in the UK.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has made an assessment of the merits of using powers under the Professional Qualifications Act 2022 (PQ Act) to increase the number of overseas-qualified dentists able to practice in the United Kingdom.
The PQ Act affirmed the Government’s commitment to protect the autonomy of regulators, including the General Dental Council, to assess overseas-gained professional qualifications and make decisions about whether individuals meet the requirements to work in a regulated profession in the UK.
The PQ Act contains a power for the Government to implement international agreements. This power was used to implement the UK’s free trade agreement with the European Economic Area and European Free Trade Association member states in 2023, meaning that UK regulators are now required to recognise comparable qualifications obtained in Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Work is currently underway to use the PQ Act power to implement the UK-Swiss Recognition of Professional Qualifications Agreement by 1 January 2025.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
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, whether she has made an estimate of the impact of the announcement to offer additional payments for check-ups and new patients on the number of new dental surgeries that will be established in each of the next five years.
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 two and a half million additional appointments, or more than one and a half million additional courses of dental treatment. As part of the plan, we will launch a new Golden Hello scheme for dentists who want to move to areas which persistently struggle to attract dentists into National Health Service work. The scheme will provide an extra two and a half million appointments, with 20,000 to be offered per dentist, for up to 240 dentists over three years.
We recognise that some commissioners will also be looking to commission new dentistry capacity to support under-served areas. We will support integrated care boards to ensure they understand how commissioning teams can encourage development of their local provider market, and to identify what further support they may need to develop new capacity, where they would otherwise be dependent on existing contractors and facilities to deliver improvements in access.
Asked by: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
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, how she defines Somerset in the context of the area across which dentistry vans will be deployed.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will deploy dental vans offering appointments to patients in targeted rural and coastal communities who have the most limited access to dentistry, including Somerset, starting later this year.
We are currently working with NHS England and the integrated care boards (ICBs), including NHS Somerset ICB, to agree the exact number of vans, and where they will be deployed. I expect to be able to provide more details on this in due course.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will (a) make it her policy to introduce mandatory dental checks for children under 11 in educational settings and (b) make an estimate of the cost of such checks.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service dental treatment for children is free if you are under 18. Dental access for children has increased since the end of the pandemic. 6.4 million children were seen by an NHS dentist in the 12 months up to 30 June 2023 which compares to 3.6 million children seen during the 12 months up to 31 December 2020. No assessments have been made on the cost of mandatory dental checks for children under 11 in educational settings.
NHS England is leading on the next stage of dental contract reform to address the challenges facing the delivery of NHS dentistry and to improve oral health outcomes. The changes announced by NHS England on 19 July 2022 include improving care to high needs patients, supporting practices to deliver more NHS care, and improving information for patients. The next steps in reform will consider what more can be done to move to a preventative approach and an overall improvement of the nation’s oral health.
The Department has published a toolkit to support the commissioning of supervised tooth brushing programmes in early years settings and schools with several local authorities already having schemes in place, funded via the Public Health Grant.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make (a) an assessment of the potential merits of ring-fencing NHS dentistry funding and (b) an estimate of the potential impact of such ringfencing on the NHS budget.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service dentistry receives £3 billion of funding each year. We want to protect dental resources for dental care and prioritise access for patients, and have taken action, starting with our contract changes announced in July 2022 to ensure that the full dental budget made available each year is spent on delivering dental care.
From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs) across England, along with the transfer of all funding. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to involve patient groups, and for undertaking oral health needs assessments, to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment.
NHS England provided guidance for the ICBs that requires dental allocations to be ringfenced in 2023/24, with any unused resources being re-directed to improve NHS dental access in the first instance, rather than being spent on other services. In November 2023, NHS England confirmed that where ICBs had not spent all of their allocation on improving access to dentistry, they would be able to retain any underspend and use this to balance their bottom line and any other pressures. ICBs will decide how to use any forecast underspend in line with this guidance. We are currently considering arrangements for 2024/25.
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 (a) make an assessment of the availability of NHS dentists in York and (b) take steps with the Integrated Care Board to analyse and act upon the findings of that assessment.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2022/23, 853 dentists in Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) performed National Health Service work. This is equivalent to 49.9 dentists per 100,000 population. From 1 April 2023, the commissioning responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population was delegated to ICBs across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to involve patient groups, and for undertaking oral health needs assessments, to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment. We are working on our dental plan, which will be published shortly and will include further measures to improve access.