Background to the report

The dental recovery plan was published in February 2024 under the previous government and aims to increase access to NHS dentistry services. The £200 million plan was intended to deliver more than 1.5 million additional NHS dentistry treatments (or 2.5 million appointments) in 2024-25 and has three components.

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The additional courses of treatment in 2024-25 were intended to come from the first of these components, through four headline initiatives:

  • mobile dental vans to deliver some dental services to targeted communities
  • a new patient premium, in which participating dental practices receive a credit of units of dental activity (UDAs) equivalent to £15 or £50 (depending on the course of treatment) for eligible new patients
  • ‘golden hello’ recruitment incentives of £20,000 (phased over three years) for 240 dentists to work in areas with recruitment and retention challenges in NHS dentistry
  • an uplift to the minimum value of a UDA to £28

Scope of the report

This report sets out information on the current delivery of NHS dentistry services and the development and progress of the plan for 2024-25. It does not seek to examine and report on the overall value for money of the programme, but we offer some reflections on what the government might want to consider as it develops its future plans for NHS dentistry. It looks at:

  • access to NHS dentistry before the plan
  • development of the 2024 dental recovery plan
  • the government’s progress against the dental recovery plan’s objectives and plans for evaluation

Video summary

Lee Summerfield, Report Director, summarises our findings.

Conclusions

The dental recovery plan aspires to deliver more than an additional 1.5 million courses of treatment in 2024-25 but is not currently on course to do so. Even if these additional courses of treatment are delivered by the end of 2024-25, the plan would still mean that 2.6 million fewer courses of treatment would have been delivered than in 2018-19.

DHSC and NHSE should look to reflect on what has worked in this plan and build upon that as they look to deliver the meaningful reform of the dental contract that they have alluded to.

A proper evaluation of this plan will be needed, as well as a review of whether they have sufficient reporting processes in place to make sure that they are getting back from ICBs the data they need to monitor progress with any future plan. They will need to assess how they engage with ICBs and dental practices who are responsible for delivering NHS dentistry in local areas.

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Publication details

Press release

View press release (27 Nov 2024)

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