The UK’s leading provider of affordable dental care is enhancing maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave from 4 October 2026, alongside an additional £6 million investment in employee pay this year, which is part of more than £23 million additional investment in pay over three years.
mydentist, the UK’s leading provider of affordable dental care, has announced an enhancement to its employee benefits package, strengthening its commitment to being the best place to work and practise in UK dentistry. From 4 October 2026, employees across the business will benefit from enhanced family-friendly leave, alongside year on year investment in pay and expanded investment in development and mental health support.
The enhanced family-friendly leave will include 13 weeks at full pay for maternity, adoption and shared parental leave, while paternity leave will be enhanced at four weeks at full pay.
The new, enhanced leave package applies to all eligible colleagues across mydentist’s 500+ practices and Support Centre, building on mydentist’s People Experience. mydentist continues to listen to colleagues feedback and the launch of the enhanced family-friendly benefits is one of many steps taken to act on feedback received from its colleagues.
mydentist has invested an extra £6 million in colleague pay this year alone. Taken together with previous years, this increases mydentist’s investment in colleague pay by over £23 million across the last three years.
With more plans to continue to build on its People Experience, mydentist is listening to its employees, acting on feedback and constantly looking at how it can improve support to them at the times that matter the most. While there is still more to be done, mydentist is already investing in a number of other areas important to colleagues:
- A new appraisal process, currently in its final pilot phase with over 1,000 colleagues involved this year, will move to full roll out at the start of the new financial year to ensure that colleague career development is at the heart of everything
- The Unmind mental health and wellbeing platform launched to managers in 2025 is now being offered to all supervisor level roles including head nurses and head receptionists, ensuring that the mental health and wellbeing is supported for every colleague every day
- A 20% increase in the professional development budget for qualified dental nurses, more than doubling this investment over two years, to help nurses build rewarding long term careers at mydentist
Libby Jones, Chief People Officer at mydentist, commented: “Our people are the heart of everything we do at mydentist. Whether they are caring for patients in a practice, supporting colleagues from our Support Centre or managing one of our 500+ practices across the country, they make this organisation what it is. These are important changes in our strategic focus to support our people in the moments that matter.”
Libby Jones continued: “We know there is always more to do, and we will keep listening. But today’s announcement is a clear statement of where we are heading. We are determined to set a new standard for mydentist to be the best place to work and practise within UK dentistry. We acknowledge that we haven’t always got everything right, but we are listening to feedback from our employees and acting on it by investing to improve our support to them. This is an exciting and natural next step for us, and we look forward to continuing to improve and strengthen our People Experience in the future.”
Nilesh Pandya, Chief Executive Officer at mydentist, commented: “We are a people business. We recognise that we will only deliver the best experiences to our over 4 million patients that we serve, if our 7,000 colleagues and 3,500 self-employed dentists feel brilliantly supported and cared for by us. That is why the changes announced today are so important. They mark the first of many steps we will take in our People Experience to make mydentist the best place to work and practice in UK dentistry.”
Detailed information, FAQs and individual briefings have been provided through the provider’s internal channels.
