Dental Health Select Committee Recommendations

No.	Recommendation
1.	NHS England to provide the Health and Adult Social Care Committee with an update on the process and timescales associated with the following two priority proposals: The City Centre Dental Practice Homeless Service
2.	NHSE England to provide assurance that the development of improved services in Plymouth (including the two priority proposals mentioned above) will not be slowed down by the region-wide oral health needs assessment which is yet to be completed.
3.	NHS England to support Plymouth’s Child Poverty Action Plan proposal to reduce children’s dental extractions under general anaesthetic by: Committing to mainstream the Devon-wide supervised toothbrushing scheme at the end of the current two-year pilot in line with Government recommendations reported in the Prevention Green Paper. Committing to a phased expansion of the fluoride varnish scheme that current operates in only 24 Plymouth schools.
4.	NHS England to engage fully with Plymouth’s Health and Wellbeing Board and provide regular update reports to the Board on progress with dental access, development of improved services and support to city providers to innovate.
5.	NHS England to address the current lack of urgent care provision in the city though transparent dialogue with all dental providers in the city who have additional available capacity.
6.	NHS England to provide a report showing for the last three years: The amount of money contracted with high street dental practices in Plymouth. The amount of money unspent and therefore ‘clawed-back’.
7.	NHS England commit to use the annual ‘claw-back’ of Plymouth-specific funding to support innovative solutions to oral health improvement and access to dental services in the city.
8.	NHS England to review current UDA rates in the city to ensure they incentivise practices to deliver NHS care, and offer attractive contracts to recruit and retain dentists in the city.
9.	NHS England to engage with Plymouth City Council’s Economic Development Team to discuss how it might be possible to attract new dentists to Plymouth and support new dental practices to open.
10.	To write to the Secretary of State for Health outlining the Committee’s support of the Dental School’s ‘14’ campaign’ to increase the number of dental students in training to 72.
11.	To write to the Secretary of State outlining the Committee’s support of the Dental School’s recommendation that Foundation Training places are linked to the School and region to help retain dentist after graduation.
12.	To arrange a summit meeting (or meetings) with local MPs to share the findings from the Oral Health Needs Assessment and to seek their support in ensuring fair funding for oral health improvement and dental services in the city.
13.	NHS England are invited to attend the Health and Adult Social Care Overview Scrutiny Committee on 22 July 2020 to provide responses to the recommendations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.