North West London LDC’s vision:
For NHS dentistry to be valued as an integral part of the local health economy, creating an environment in which dentists are proud to work
But how will we achieve this?
North West London LDC is building strong local relationships with key stakeholders outside of the dental world. We are engaging with commissioners and are building relationships with the Integrated Care Board which has taken over dental commissioning from 01 April 2023. But, the ICB is in turn influenced by local plans developed at the borough level. The strength of an LDC is the desire and ability of its members to engage and remain invested in its vision. We are working closely with local stakeholders to ensure that dentistry and oral health is recognised as a key service to meet local objectives.
We are engaging with local Healthwatch to ensure that the voice of patients and the public is well informed about dental services, both how they currently work and what we could provide if the will to change things was there. We are working with the local training hub to ensure that other clinical colleagues understand how dental services and the impact that oral health has on their area of interest; and with local authorities to join up plans for improving children’s health with children’s oral health. To bring these strands together we are building our relationships with the Directors of Integration in each borough to make sure that dentistry and oral health is represented and considered in the development of local plans.
Our engagement with the Integrated Care Board is improving all the time. The LDC is represented on the ICB’s Primary Care Programme Board, a monthly meeting assessing primary care plans. We also have regular meetings with our representative to the Dental Commissioning Oversight Group to ensure that the voice of frontline practitioners is heard at the most senior level.
We will continue to liaise with the Managed Clinical Networks on paediatric care, special care, oral surgery, restorative and endodontics to make sure that approaches are consistent and pathways always improving.
All of this activity will help to improve the environment in which we work. If our local stakeholders understand our services better, understand how much patients value our services, then we will be able to nurture local allies who will help us achieve the system changes we need.
We will achieve this through our approach based on:
Support: We are here to support local dentists, that means helping make systemic changes to improve working lives but also helping individuals when they need it.
Clarity: We will be clear to our members and stakeholders about what we are trying to achieve and why. This will ensure that we are able to take feedback on to stay relevant but also encourage active participation from our members.
Inclusivity: We want to break down barriers to engagement and involvement and make sure that all dentists have the opportunity to be involved, learn and develop through their LDC.
We want the local voice to lead the changes to local services.
