Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to support Integrated Care Boards to develop and offer a school-based service of dental inspection and treatment.

Integrated care boards will be responsible for having local processes in place to involve patient groups, and for undertaking oral health needs assessments, to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment for dental services. The responsibility for provision of dental screening and health promotion sits at a local authority level.

Community dental services (CDS) offer dental care to vulnerable patients who are referred by a general practitioner or social worker and cannot be treated in a general National Health Service dental practice or may be in locations that cannot access NHS dental services, which may include care homes. CDS work in schools and other community settings to raise awareness of good oral health care and how this has an impact on the wider health of the population.

In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care across England. These changes will increase access to NHS dentistry whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices. We are holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for additional reforms of the NHS Dental System, including for school-age children. We will announce our plans later this year.