Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to made an assessment of the effectiveness of the Starting Well, oral health preventative programme.

Local Starting Well schemes will have their effectiveness measured by Local NHS England Regional Offices against a set of performance and outcomes indicators. The indicators will mirror the aims and objectives of the programme. NHS England advises that an independent evaluation, led by the University of Birmingham, will evaluate if the aims and objectives of the programme were met and inform the development of guidance to future commissioners of such programmes.