2024 was an interesting and frustrating year in equal measure for NHS dentistry nationally and for us as LDCs within the LDC Confederation. It began with the previous Government’s Dental Recovery Plan, engagement with the previous dental Minister, London Mayoral and London Assembly elections, the General Election, a new government, an aggressive budget and finished with an unexpected early cold snap!
Throughout the year the LDC Confederation has been working hard to support member LDCs to engage at the local level and have their voice heard at the regional and national level.
We responded starkly to the Dental Recovery Plan, warning that it would do little to improve the situation – and so it has proven to be.
The New Patient Premium is now being investigated by the NHS to understand what impact it has had on the provision of NHS dental care. Many practices, we know, have used up their UDAs much faster than in previous years as a result of its implementation. This has not been targeted and its application frustrated the development of what would have been more effective local plans. It is frustrating that no impact assessment of this policy was published before the proposal was implemented, and that a review is coming so late in the day.
The LDC Confederation’s London Manifesto was supported by all three major parties in London and received positive reception from the Mayor. The GLA Health Committee picked dentistry as its first investigation of this new Mayoralty and we look forward to seeing their final report in the new year. The LDC Confederation gave evidence at the first session of this investigation and followed up with several meetings with members of the Health Committee as well as submitting evidence for their consideration, which will be published along with the final report.
No-one knew an election was coming as we enjoyed significant engagement with the previous dental Minister Andrea Leadsom MP. Our member LDCs were well represented with nine Directors attending two roundtable meetings held at Portcullis House to articulate the opinions of primary care NHS dentists directly to the Minister. These meetings and others were very constructive and if there had not been an election soon after we feel some progress could have been made. Despite repeated requests we are yet to meet with the new Minister for Primary Care, but will continue to press for engagement with the Ministerial team and have already recommended improvements to the flexible commissioning guidance to make it clearer and easier for ICBs to work with LDCs.
Throughout the year we worked with many of the local Healthwatch in London to develop a patient facing survey to understand the public’s attitude to NHS dentistry. We are in the process of finalising the report and look forward to publishing it in the new year.
Although the General Election took everyone by surprise we had our General Election Manifesto ready to go and published it during the campaign season. During the election, unusually, the consultation on the dental graduate tie-in continued to be run and we submitted our response. Since then, however, there has been no news.
The budget delivered increased costs for dental practices and we have raised this with MPs at various meetings as well as publicising the BDA’s campaign on this important issue in the November newsletters.
Despite the campaign rhetoric there has been no visible movement on dentistry by the new Government. It is still relatively early days but it is a shame that there has been no news on the initiatives stalled by the General Election such as provisional registration and the dental graduate tie-in. Yes, the Secretary of State for Dentistry met with the BDA straight away after the General Election as he said he would, but we have seen no outcomes since then. It is sad that the new administration has not taken any early and easy steps to improve the situation for NHS dentistry but we will continue our engagement in the new year and beyond.
The LDC Confederation works hard to make sure that any national changes and plans are informed by those developed at the local level. We want to see the major changes needed but we also want to see dentistry reformed as part of the NHS, not separately. We are hopeful that the current consultation on the NHS will be the first step in bringing primary care NHS dentistry in from the cold.
