Now an established forum after four events, the Dental Leadership Network brought together leaders from across dentistry to discuss the dental system, as seen from the perspective of patients and the public.

The primary goal of the Dental Leadership Network is to bring dental leaders together to share information and build relationships, improve understanding of everyone’s remit and encourage collaboration to resolve shared challenges.

The event was opened by Joanne Rewcastle, GDC Associate Director, Communications and Engagement, who shared feedback about the Network’s objectives and suggestions for future priorities and topics.

This was followed by a keynote presentation by Jacob Lant, Chief Executive of National Voices, who gave a cautionary tale about NHS dentistry from 2014 to today and the positive opportunities for progress and change.

Rachel Lopata, Chief Executive of Community Research, spoke about the latest research from the GDC into patients’ and the public’s experience of dentistry.

Representatives from across the sector then joined a panel discussion on the challenges facing patients as they navigate the system, facilitated by John Cullinane, GDC Executive Manager, Hearings.

The panellists were Fiona Sandom, Chair of the British Association of Dental Therapists, Dominic Innes-Taylor, Clinical Fellow, Office of the Chief Dental Officer, England, Gill Harding, Director of Communications, DentAid and Stefan Czerniawski, GDC Executive Director, Strategy.

The GDC’s Chair, Lord Toby Harris, shared his thoughts on how patients and the public experience dental services and why the Dental Leadership Network matters, before the event was closed by Paul Cushley, Dental Director, NHS National Services Scotland.

The GDC’s Chair, Lord Toby Harris, said:

“We need to listen to the perspectives of others. That is what the Dental Leadership Network is about – and today we have been listening, engaging and focusing on the patient and public perspective. We all want patients to receive the safe and effective oral healthcare they need. We are all united on that.”

The full text of the GDC’s Chair’s keynote is available here.

As part of an effort to deepen the understanding the dental workforce the General Dental Council (GDC) will be asking dental professionals to share a few details of their working patterns as part of their annual renewal.

This additional work pattern data, which will be provided on a voluntary basis, will help to build on the very limited workforce data that the dental sector can currently use.

The GDC is able to address this challenge as it is in the unique position of having the most complete data available, a list of everyone who is registered to practise dentistry, across all the professions and the four nations of the UK. However, the registration data currently held only tells us who is registered with the GDC and does not provide details of what they are doing.

The responses the GDC receives will help it and others to better understand:

• Where dental professionals are working.
• What they are doing.
• The number of hours they are working.
• Whether they are working in NHS or private practice.
• How the way dental professionals are working changes over time.

All submissions will be anonymous and the GDC will ensure that no individual can be identified. Furthermore, the answers dental professionals provide will not affect their access to services or how the GDC treats them. The GDC will use the responses to undertake analyses, produce reports and make the data available to any external organisations and stakeholders who request it.

Helping the sector to understand its workforce better will inform discussions and support better decision-making to improve access to services in the future.

Gurvinder Soomal, GDC Chief Operating Officer, said: “We know that information about dental professionals’ working patterns is limited, which makes workforce planning challenging. Following discussions with many stakeholders across dentistry, we have decided to ask dental professionals to provide some additional information as part of their renewal process.

“Understanding more about the dental workforce will provide valuable insight for future workforce resource planning. Completing this is a valuable opportunity, as having a better understanding of our workforce and its needs can only help bring about the changes the profession and patients want and needed.”

Following a detailed and thorough review, the General Dental Council’s (GDC’s) priorities have been approved by their Council for the next three years in line with the Corporate Strategy 2023-2025. In doing so, this has set the budget and Annual Retention Fee (ARF) for 2024. 

The ARF for 2024 will be £621 for dentists (a reduction of £69 or 10%) and £96 for dental care professionals (a reduction of £18 or 15.8%).

The Council must review the financial position each year to ensure that there is the right balance of income and expenditure and will do so again in 2025. The Council’s current intention is that the ARF in 2025 will be retained at the same level to provide certainty for registrants but this decision must be made at the time of the review, taking into account the GDC’s priorities and external economic factors. 

GDC Chair, Lord Toby Harris, said: “Council has set fees at a level that ensures we can continue to fulfil our statutory role of maintaining patient safety and public confidence for the next year. Although we will review the GDC’s plans again next year, we will go into this with an intention to maintain the ARF at the same level in 2025.”

The level of uncertainty around income and expenditure remains high, due to ongoing volatility in the UK economy.  

While the GDC is confident that the lower level of the ARF will provide the income required for 2024, it will be reviewed for 2025 by Council. In 2025, Council consult on the Corporate Strategy for 2026-2028, which will then set the ARF for subsequent years. 

GDC Chief Executive and Registrar, Ian Brack, said: “The GDC faces continuing high inflation, financial uncertainty and external risk. We are engaged in a major review of how we take forward international registration in the light of our revised powers, and we are investing in additional capacity to help maintain or improve performance. Nevertheless, we have been able to produce a robust plan which delivers these activities and is also expected to provide a reduced ARF for registrants for the remainder of the 2023-2025 strategy period.”

After nearly eight years leading the GDC, Ian Brack will be stepping down as Chief Executive and Registrar of the General Dental Council (GDC), on 6 November. 

Under his leadership the organisation has changed almost beyond recognition, and Ian Brack is leaving having placed the GDC on a sound financial footing and implemented a strong culture of planning and operational delivery. 

The GDC’s Council is soon to confirm the budget and ARF for next year, along with the Costed Corporate Plan for 2024-2026. Having these important decisions settled will be a good point to recruit a new CEO to take the GDC’s priorities into the future.   

The Chief Operating Officer, Gurvinder Soomal, will act as Interim Chief Executive until a new CEO and Registrar is in place. 

The GDC’s Chair, Lord Toby Harris, said: “I would like to take the opportunity to say that my colleagues on the Council and I have very much enjoyed working with Ian over the years and are grateful for the significant contribution he has made to the GDC. I am personally grateful to him for helping me to settle into the role after my appointment as Chair. Both I and my colleagues on the Council wish Ian the very best for the future, and we look forward to working with Gurvinder as interim CEO.”

The GDC has joined eight other UK healthcare regulators in publishing an annual report on whistleblowing disclosures.

Rather than publish this information separately, the regulators have compiled an annual report jointly to highlight their coordinated effort in working together to highlight and address whistleblowing concerns raised to them.

The aim in the report is to be transparent about how regulators handle disclosures, highlight the action taken about these issues, and to improve collaboration across the health sector. Speaking up to protect others is important, and the GDC wants to encourage this, especially when there are serious concerns regarding public safety or confidence.

The number of whistleblowing disclosures the GDC received this year was 82, compared to 61 last year. This was a return to the level of disclosures the GDC had received in previous years, indicating last year may have been an outlier.

Compared to other regulators the GDC received a higher proportion of disclosures for the size of the register. Most dentistry is provided in a primary care setting and outside the more robust clinical governance frameworks that characterise some other forms of healthcare, and this may mean that alternative disclosure routes are less present in dentistry, with a larger proportion being dealt with by the regulator.

The GDC has continued to review its processes and procedures to identify whistleblowing concerns earlier and has a more robust process for this at the point a concern is received. This has included recognising how whistleblowing concerns differ from other concerns raised by dental professionals about other dental professionals, often referred to as ‘blue on blue’. 

This Whistleblowing disclosures report 2023 is published jointly by the GDC with the General Chiropractic Council, General Medical Council, General Optical Council, General Osteopathic Council, General Pharmaceutical Council, Health and Care Professions Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council and Social Work England. 

You can and read the GDC’s definition of a whistleblower and the Whistleblowing disclosures report 2023 on its website.

The General Dental Council (GDC) has launched a pilot that will test a change to the initial stages of its fitness to practise processes to improve proportionality and timeliness. Process changes are being made to the way investigations are carried out in certain cases, to help to resolve issues faster while continuing to effectively maintain public safety and confidence in the dental profession.

The GDC wants to ensure matters that do not pose a risk to public safety or confidence are concluded as quickly as possible. The change in process being piloted will help ensure the regulator is fully informed of all relevant facts as early as possible, ensuring that only issues amounting to a fitness to practise concern are fully investigated.

The pilot will run for six months starting on 4 September. It will be applied initially to single patient clinical practice cases, where the dental professional involved has no previous fitness to practise concerns but may be expanded during the pilot.   

The GDC’s current legislative framework effectively requires all matters relating to the clinical practice of a dental professional to be referred from the initial assessment stage to assessment for an investigation. Considerable effort and resources are then allocated to gathering information, whether or not it is required, to reach a decision. 

The change being piloted is designed to limit the information gathered to what is specifically required in each case. In these cases, that will normally be the patient’s clinical records. The aim is to reduce the time it takes to conclude low level issues. The process will rely on being able to access records quickly, so the cooperation of dental professionals and their representatives is needed if the pilot is to succeed.  

The new pilot reflects the GDC’s desire to make improvements to the fitness to practise process where it can, ahead of any potential regulatory reform. It is also hoped that improved timeliness and proportionality will reduce the impact of fitness to practise investigations on the health and wellbeing of those involved.

John Cullinane, Executive Director, Fitness to Practise, said:

“We know our investigations can be complex and take a long time and that they can have a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of those involved. We also know that lengthy investigations, about what can be perceived as minor issues, can lead to feelings of mistrust and frustration in the fitness to practise process.

“We will continue to try and improve our processes within the current legislation, and we hope that by working with others, we can make some significant improvements in timeliness without affecting the outcomes of these investigations. Our own analysis tells us that cases that would fall into the scope of this pilot do not normally progress beyond our assessment stage, so we hope this small change will make a big difference.”

With the 28 August deadline fast approaching, over 2,000 dental care professionals still need to make their annual CPD declaration, with an additional 1,500 who have made a statement, but have not yet met their CPD requirements.  

CPD rules require dental professionals to make a compliant statement every year by the 28 August and the General Dental Council (GDC) is calling on DCPs to make sure their statements are in order before it’s too late. 

The vast majority of dental care professionals renewed their registration with no complications, but 3,487 have not yet met their CPD requirements. That figure includes 2,071 DCPs who have paid their annual retention fee and made an indemnity declaration, but still need to provide a CPD statement.  

DCPs need to complete at least 10 hours of CPD over each two-year period. Even if they have not completed any CPD activity in 2022 – 2023, they are still required to make a statement. In these circumstances, they should submit a zero-hours CPD statement. 

Not completing a CPD declaration can have serious consequences for individuals and for the team they work in, as non-compliance may end up with removal from the register. It is therefore very important for DCPs to check now to make sure they are compliant before the deadline of 28 August.  

The quickest and easiest way to make a CPD statement is through eGDC. We also provide further guidance and information about Enhanced CPD.

The number of dental care professionals (DCPs) on the UK Register, following the recent annual renewal period, has risen when compared with the trajectory of previous years. On the morning after removals there were 71,769 DCPs on the Register, an increase of 2,093 on the equivalent figure for 2022.