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Health Education England’s Advancing Dental Care (ADC) Review Report has been published today (21/9/21), the culmination of a three-year review to identify and develop a future dental education and training infrastructure that produces a skilled multi-professional oral healthcare workforce, which can best support patient and population needs within the NHS.
Health Education England has worked and engaged with trainees, patients and system partners to devise a clear blueprint for change to reform dental education and training, which includes widening access to dental careers and understanding the oral health needs of patients in specific communities, so the skills and competencies of the workforce can be targeted where they are most needed.
Over the next four years, we will continue to work collaboratively with system partners to deliver the recommendations of the ADC Review report across each of England’s seven regions. The proposals include:
Giving trainees diverse experience of managing complex care, co-morbidities, and a stronger understanding of the communities they serve in changing care models and pathways
Better use of the skill mix of the dental workforce and multi-disciplinary team working
Options for qualified dentists and dental care professionals to increase their knowledge and skills and develop new capabilities and competence, including leadership, management and research
More flexible entry routes into training, to widen access and participation and develop more dental professionals in areas of greatest need
Supporting the development of apprenticeships to diversify and promote the concept of a local dental workforce approach
Co-ordination and distribution of postgraduate training posts, so that it is better aligned to areas with the highest levels of oral health inequalities
Flexible models of Dental Core and Specialty Training to support workforce retention and career progression and an equitable distribution of postgraduate dental training places
Digital and blended learning opportunities to deliver dental education and training
Options for less than full time training and career breaks, which can support differing lifestyles and wellbeing of trainees
Malcolm Smith, Chair of the Advancing Dental Care programme gives a short overview of the new report in the vlog below.
For further information, or if you have an accessibility query, please contact advancingdentistry@hee.nhs.uk
The Dental Workforce Advisory Group (DWAG) convened during 2015-2017 to consider the workforce that would best meet future oral health needs. This exercise brought together stakeholders from across dentistry to consider the current workforce, the drivers for change, and the principles that should underpin workforce development. The report was compiled and reviewed by DWAG in 2018.
The Final DWAG report can be found on the Future oral and dental workforce for England (2018) page and sets out recommendations for delivering a workforce that will provide timely, prevention-oriented high quality care, in a co-ordinated system.
Phase II (a) produced a robust evidence base for the population’s current and future oral health needs and Phase II (b) has modelled flexible education and training programmes for the dental workforce.
Further information about Phase II can be found on the Phase II page.
HEE’s Advancing Dental Care (ADC) Education & Training Review was commissioned to develop a dental education and training infrastructure that supplies a dental workforce with the skills to respond to the changing oral health needs of patients and services.
The Review’s first phase concluded with the ADC Report, setting out 21 recommendations for further developing HEE’s evidence-base and understanding of the dental workforce required for the future NHS, with the aim of safeguarding dental workforce sustainability and supply.
Further information can be found on the Phase I page.
An ambitious four year plan to develop a workforce more able to address oral health inequalities across the population by reforming dental education and training was published today by HEE
Read the full news story here