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 assessment of the potential merits of Integrated Care System partners being required to determine and fund dental delivery models to address the backlog in NHS dental services.

The introduction of Integrated Care Services and their boards will strengthen partnerships between National Health Service dental care and local authorities, and with local partners, including Local Dental Networks. This will enable more joined up planning and provision, enhancing the services that patients receive.

Integrated Care Board leaders must have the freedom and duty to distribute resources in line with national rules and contractual frameworks. The suggested reforms aim to bring commissioning of services, including dental services, closer to the patient and seek to address health needs at a more local level, including those that have arisen as a result of the pandemic such as challenges in accessing NHS dentistry.