Dental services

PCC is able to help commissioners navigate their way through commissioning and contracting matters. Support can be provided via our national training events, at local workshops or through our helpdesk facility. To support this we are placing links to some essential resources below.

Local workshops and one to one support

The dental services team can deliver a number of workshops for your organisation. If you have specific training needs you would like to discuss please contact either your local adviser or drop us a line at enquiries@pcc-cic.org.uk

One to one support or mentoring for new team members can also be provided upon request.

Training and support for commissioners

PCC’s dental team are launching their next round of training courses for commissioners.  With the current environment we have looked at our training courses and have converted these to virtual delivery.  Face to face training days will recommence when it is safe to do so but in the meantime we will be providing our support to commissioners virtually.

These training courses are available through our national events or we could provide training as a workshop to your team.  If interested in a local workshop please contact your adviser or contact us via enquiries@pcc-cic.org.uk

  • The primary care dental contract – an introduction – a course to familiarise delegates with the contracts that must be held to provide NHS dentistry, with a focus on primary care provision.
  • Primary care dental contracts – variations (services and ownership) – a course that will enable delegates to understand and manage the variations that they may come across when managing dental contracts.
  • Primary care dental contracts – financial arrangements – a course that will help delegates understand the financial arrangements for the provision of NHS dentistry in primary care.
  • Primary care dental contract – contract changes including incorporation – a course that will aid delegates to manage contractual changes which are not managed by the variation process.
  • Primary care dental contracts – contractual notices – a course that will empower commissioners in understanding when and how contractual notices (breach and termination) can be issued.
  • Dental contracts – managing disputes – a course that will explore when contractual disputes relating to primary care dental contracts may arise and how they should be managed by commissioners.

More details on each of these courses can be found here and via our events page.

PCC dental helpdesk (annual contract holders)
Commissioners who have specific commissioning and contract queries in relation to the dental contract can submit queries to PCC’s expert dental team via our online helpdesk https://helpdesk.pcc-cic.org.uk/

PCC’s dental ask the expert surgeries (annual contract holders only)
PCC run bi-monthly open surgeries for commissioners to bring commissioning and contracting questions and issues for discussion with PCC’s dental experts and other commissioners. Highlights of national matters are also shared on the sessions.

Essential resources for dental commissioners and providers

As part of our support to commissioners and providers we are placing links to some essential resources below which PCC can help you navigate.

NHS England policy book

To support local offices in the commissioning of local dental contracts, NHS England and NHS Improvement has published a policy book for Primary Dental Services. The policy book has been created to support:

• Excellent commissioning and partnership working
• General contract management
• When things go wrong

The policies can be accessed at https://www.england.nhs.uk/primary-care/dentistry/dental-commissioning/dental-policies-and-procedures/

Dental contract documentation

Model template documentation including the latest national variation documents is provided by NHS England and NHS Improvement and the latest versions of the documents can be found here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/primary-care/dentistry/dental-commissioning/dental-contract/

A copy of the PDS plus agreement and all its schedules is provided.

Dental commissioning guides

To support commissioners in fulfilling the commissioning obligations NHS England and NHS Improvement have released a number of commissioning guides in relation to speciality services including orthodontics, oral surgery and oral medicine and paediatric dentistry. The guides can be found at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/primary-care/dentistry/dental-commissioning/dental-specialities/

Dental data

NHS Business Services Authority Dental Services is responsible for paying dental contractors on behalf of NHS England. They also provide dental statistics and key information directly to contractors, through the dental portal and to NHS England and NHS Improvement teams through eDen. More information can be found at: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/eden

NHS Digital centre provides statistics on dental activity, earnings and expenses, prescribing and the NHS outcomes framework. Dental data can be accessed at: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-dental-statistics

Dental System Reform

Since March 2021 NHS England have been looking at Dental System Reform (DSR). Full details can be found Dental system reform. Six aims were agreed with the profession as part of this process, these are:

  1. Be designed with the support of the profession
  2. Improve oral health outcomes
  3. Increase incentives to undertake preventative dentistry, prioritise evidence-based care for patients with the most needs and reduce incentives to deliver care that is of low clinical value
  4. Improve patient access to NHS care, with a specific focus on addressing inequalities, particularly deprivation and ethnicity
  5. Demonstrate that patients are not having to pay privately for dental care that was previously commissioned NHS dental care
  6. Be affordable within NHS resources made available by Government, including taking account of dental charge income.

In July 2022 NHS England announced a package of initial reforms to the NHS dental contract, full details of these reforms can be accessed First stages of dental system reform.

In February 2024 NHS England published their dental recovery plan which aims to make dental services faster, simpler and fairer.

Faster for patients through our new patient premium to support dentists to take on new patients and a new marketing campaign to help everyone who needs one to find a dentist

Simpler for patients and for dental staff by streamlining and tackling bureaucracy, with a wider set of workforce reforms to maximise the skills across the entire dental clinical team

Fairer, particularly for our rural and coastal communities, by introducing new dental vans to bring dental care to our most isolated communities, offering ‘golden hello’ incentives to encourage dentists into under-served areas and supporting those practices with the lowest rates of payment for their work

The full plan which can be accessed at Dental recovery plan.

Strategy documentation

The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and NHS Improvement have provided a number of documents to support the commissioning and direction of travel for NHS dentistry.

These include:

Securing Excellence in Primary Care Services, Securing Excellence in Dental Services

In June 2012 NHS England published their plan for securing excellence in primary care and followed that document in February 2014 with their plans for dental services. Both documents and other primary care resources can be accessed at https://www.england.nhs.uk/primary-care/dentistry/dental-commissioning/dental-resources/

Delivering Better Oral Health

In November 2021 the government and NHS England provided an updated version of their toolkit Delivering Better Oral Heath. The guidance provides evidence-based interventions and new advice on how dental health professionals can improve and maintain the oral and general health of their patients.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/delivering-better-oral-health-an-evidence-based-toolkit-for-prevention

NHS Dental Services in England

In June 2009 Professor Jimmy Steele published his independent report on NHS dental services. The recommendations within the report have helped shape the current dental contract reform programme.

Dental resources

NHS England has provided commissioners with a suite of supporting documents, process and guides to support the commissioning and contracting of dental services, which can be accessed at Dental commissioning.

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