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 introducing a similar initiative to Child Smile (Scotland) and Designed to Smile (Wales) in order to improve the oral health of children in England.

The Government is committed to improving oral health with a particular focus on deprived children. Dental disease is preventable and this is why we are reforming the current dental system to enable dentists to focus more effectively on helping patients prevent future disease as well as treating active disease. And oral health at national level is good. Almost 75% of children now have no decay at five years old.

But we know that deprived groups are significantly over represented in the around 25% of five year olds with decay. Alongside transforming care for those who already attend a dentist regularly we have set up 'Starting Well' a programme that focuses on children who do not already attend a dentist regularly. The Starting Well programme is being led by NHS England and is designed to reach out to families in 13 high need areas with professional advice and support - encouraging regular visits to the dentist and highlighting the importance of prevention for good oral health. The 13 areas are Blackburn with Darwen; Blackpool; Bolton; Ealing; Kingston Upon Hull; Leicester; Middlesbrough; Oldham; Rochdale; Salford; Slough; Wakefield; and Luton.

Alongside this national initiative, NHS England is developing a complementary approach (Starting Well Core) which offers commissioners outside the 13 areas, a commissioning approach similarly designed to facilitate increased access and early preventive care for young children. Decisions on use are for commissioners to make based on their assessment of need locally.

108 dental practices are now participating in the national programme. The programme launched in April 2018 and will have interim evaluation in autumn 2018 and full evaluation by early 2020.

The Government continues to carefully consider all approaches to improving oral health particularly for the children most at risk.