Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the (a) cost and (b) return on investment of rolling out supervised toothbrushing in early years settings for the 30 per cent most deprived children in England.
No date has yet been set for a consultation on a national early years toothbrushing scheme for England.
We estimate the cost of rolling out a supervised toothbrushing scheme for 30% of the most deprived 3-5 year-olds would cost approximately £9 million per annum. The Public Health England Return on Investment tool estimates that supervised toothbrushing provides a five-year return of £3.06 for every £1 invested.