Service costs payments to practices providing Dental Foundation Training (DFT) have been uplifted for the first time in a decade, as a result of determined campaigning by the BDA.

Payments will be uplifted in line with the expenses increase applied to contracts, rising from £64,164 to £65,244 per year. This rise follows a freeze in the value of these payments since 2014.

The BDA has persistently called for the payments to be uplifted, noting the impact the freeze has had on the recruitment and retention of training practices.

The service cost payments cover the expenses associated with the treatment that Foundation Dentists provide and all of the associated practice costs with them working as dentists during their DFT year. Service costs would now be at £100,876 if rates had kept pace with inflation.

The BDA will continue to call for the real terms erosion in the value of the payments over the last year to be addressed, through a significant uplift to payment, and for uplifts to now be applied on an annual basis.

Shawn Charlwood, Chair of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, said: “Dental Foundation Training practices shape tomorrow’s NHS dentists. The freeze in support costs has been an act of self-harm. If we’re ever going to restore the pipeline of talent into this service, the increase we’ve secured must be a first step.”

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