Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure adequate provision of NHS dentistry services in North Herefordshire.

In July 2022, we announced a package of reforms to improve access to National Health Service dentistry. This included changes to banding and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. These include a 40% increase to dentistry undergraduate training places by 2031/32.

There have been improvements in access to NHS dental care over the past year. Figures from the dental annual statistics, published on 24 August 2023, show that the numbers of children and adults seen by an NHS dentist have increased compared to the previous year, and the number of courses of treatment increased by 23.2% when compared to the previous year.

However, we know we need to do more, and that there are some areas where access is particularly problematic. We are working on our Dental Plan which will address how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients; and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.

From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards across England. NHS Herefordshire & Worcestershire Integrated Care Board is currently procuring two additional dental practices in North and South Herefordshire, which are expected to become operational in early 2024.