The General Dental Council (GDC) has been honoured with a Silver TIDE award from the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion (ENEI), recognising significant improvements in the regulator’s equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) working practices.
The GDC achieved a score of 76% in this year’s assessment, a substantial increase from 52% in 2024, and was ranked 63rd out of 180 participating organisations, up from 135th out of 185 in the previous year. This achievement places the GDC in the ’embed’ phase of ENEI’s inclusion roadmap, demonstrating that the GDC has established good EDI practices and is working to make them part of everyday operations.
ENEI is a UK-based, not-for-profit organisation that helps employers build and maintain diverse teams and inclusive cultures through its membership, training, and consultancy services. TIDE is ENEI’s self-assessment, evaluation and benchmarking tool that measures an organisation’s approach and progress on diversity and inclusion.
The assessment evaluates organisations across 10 key areas including diversity data monitoring, inclusive leadership, recruitment practices, and EDI training. The GDC excelled particularly in employee voice and engagement, values and behaviours, and wellbeing and belonging.
The improvement was driven by key developments implemented over the past year, including the introduction of updated GDC values and investment in leadership development through the Managing the GDC Way programme and the publication of our EDI action plan.
Dan Popple, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the GDC, said: “This Silver TIDE award reflects the collective effort of everyone at the GDC — from engagement in staff networks to e-learning completion — and demonstrates the positive impact of initiatives we’ve introduced over the past year.
“We know that we have a significant role in promoting EDI and identifying and tackling discrimination and inequality through our regulatory functions and as an employer.
“While this is excellent progress, we know we have more to do as we continue our inclusion journey. This recognition reinforces our commitment to creating an inclusive environment where EDI is central to our overarching objective of public protection, and where all colleagues can thrive.”
