£50 Million Funding Announcement for Dentistry

I have received the below letter from Maria Caulfield, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Primary Care and Patient Safety at the Department of Health and Social Care:

Dear Colleague,

£50M Funding Announcement for Dentistry

Today, we are announcing that we will be investing an additional £50 million to urgently give more people access to high quality dental care.

Throughout the pandemic dentists have rightly prioritised the safety of their patients and staff, including by introducing infection control measures to reduce the risk of infection from aerosols commonly generated by dental procedures. Although necessary, these measures restricted the number of dentistry appointments that the NHS has been able to offer.

Thanks to the hard work of our dedicated NHS dental teams, the levels of urgent treatment recovered to pre-pandemic levels by December 2020. However, we know some individuals still require urgent access, which is why the NHS will shortly announce that an extra £50 million is being made available to dental practices. The funding will secure up to 350,000 additional dental appointments for those suffering from oral pain, disease and infections to help them get the care they need.

This funding will be targeted at those most in need of urgent dental treatment. Children will be prioritised, as will people with learning disabilities, autism, or severe mental health problems. We aim to spend this additional funding before the end of this financial year with the funding planned to be spent before the end of the financial year.

This government remains committed to recovering and reforming NHS dentistry. We are working with the dental sector to do just this in the short term, as indicated by this injection of funding this financial year, as well as in the longer term. This includes working with partners, including the British Dental Association, to look at alternative ways of commissioning and to improve dental education and training.

NHS regions will commission additional services from contractors that have proven ability and capacity to deliver extra activity. Regional budgets are confirmed in the table below:

 Budget
Region                                  £000
East of England                        5,731
London                                       7,809
Midlands                                    8,904
North East and Yorkshire      8,633
North West                                7,310
South East                                 6,887
South West                                4,726
Total                                        50,000

This £50 million will help with the recovery from the pandemic impact, starting us on the road to stabilising NHS dental services and giving us a firm foundation for our next steps.

                                                                                                                                      MARIA CAULFIELD MP
                        PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR PRIMARY CARE AND PATIENT SAFETY