Dental Schools Ready to Deliver Workforce Plan - If Funded
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- Published: Tuesday, 18 July 2023 07:35
- Written by Peter Ingle
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The Dental Schools Council does not enjoy a particularly high profile outside of academia. As the representative body for dental schools across the UK and Ireland, describing itself as the authoritative voice of dental education, it works to maintain and improve quality in education, clinical training and research. This makes the Council’s assessment of the recently announced NHS Long Term Workforce Plan a significant contribution to the debate about the ambitious promises to dramatically increase training capacity.
The response starts promisingly: “The Dental Schools Council (DSC) congratulates the government on producing the first ever Long Term Workforce Plan in the history of the NHS. DSC welcomes and is supportive of the government’s ambitions to invest in dental education in England and the future dental workforce.” The DSC points out that it has been calling for an increase in dentistry and dental therapist places.
Support for the plan comes with some conditions, if dental schools are to deliver the required numbers of dental professionals. The DSC considers it essential that alongside “scaled and proportional funding”, expansion is managed in a way that preserves critical mass of teaching and research talent, and investment in buildings. The Dental schools have capacity to train more students, subject to the right investment. Ominously, given governments that instinctively reach for economies of scale, the DSC say that funding will need to be maintained or increased per student. In the case of dental therapists and dental hygienists, that funding would need to start by addressing shortfalls in the existing model. The MPs hoping for a shiny new dental school in their constituency will not be pleased to read that, “Capital funding should be directed towards maintaining and improving existing buildings rather than building new ones and this should be supported by a new dedicated, ongoing, fund.”
The plan had little to say about how the country might train enough dental nurses, and the Council reminded those behind it of their importance in the dental team. Their role and numbers should be considered as an integral part of workforce planning. Foundation Training placement provision and funding would need to anticipate the increase in students. The comment that, “Discussion is needed to better understand this process” might indicate that this is not going to be easy.
The Council’s statement gives a great deal of consideration, not so much to the numbers of trainees, but where they will come from. They say that ways need to be found to continue to improve access to careers in dentistry. This could mean increased outreach programmes from dental schools. Means of tackling geographical inequalities would include summer schools, contextual admissions, and foundation programmes.
Despite scepticism from some healthcare commentators, the Council is supportive of innovative approaches such as apprenticeships and graduate entry programmes. In what could herald a major shake-up of where and how training is delivered, the council states that: “Dental schools are keen to address disparities in oral healthcare provision by adjusting dental school recruitment practices and once established, engaging with the proposed Centres for Dental Development.”
There is also consideration of staff retention and how graduates might be encouraged to stay in the NHS. As the report says, “Considerable funding and planning are needed to enable the career progression and working culture that new graduates are seeking.”
Concluding, Professor Kirsty Hill, Chair of the Dental Schools Council is quoted saying, “Dental schools are supportive of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan and we hope that it signifies the beginning of efforts to tackle the pressing challenges facing UK oral healthcare. Expansion is a significant and positive development, and we commend the government for recognising the importance of increasing dental hygiene and dental therapist positions. These roles play a vital role in enhancing capacity and improving care. In order to maximise the potential of this expansion, we also need to make sure that all oral healthcare careers are valued and that a career in NHS dentistry is attractive and rewarding. This will involve important discussions around contractual reform.”
NHS England and the DHSC will be very pleased to see that the Dental Schools Council is generally supportive of the workforce plan and the proposed changes to training. They may prefer to ignore the Councils assertion that the plan requires significant investment if it is to succeed.
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