Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure individuals receive timely reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 to support access to dental services in Surrey Heath constituency.

The National Health Service contracts with independent dental providers to deliver NHS dental treatment in primary care settings. Dental practices are businesses and therefore able to decide how they operate, providing they remain compliant with the appropriate regulations.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for undertaking special care oral health needs assessments, to identify areas of oral health need, to inform local commissioning intentions, and to determine the local priorities for investment. For the Surrey constituency, this is the NHS Surrey Heartlands.

The NHS constitution states that NHS services will always be available for the people who need them. No one can deny a person the right to access these services because of their age, disability, race, gender or gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, or marital or civil partnership status. The Handbook to the NHS Constitution is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supplements-to-the-nhs-constitution-for-england/the-handbook-to-the-nhs-constitution-for-england

Care Quality Commission regulations mandate that all registered providers must have due regard to the protected characteristics defined in the Equality Act 2010.

Furthermore, Community Dental Services provide care to patients who may have difficulty accessing high street dental services due to their social, medical, or dental need. This may include children with learning disabilities, complex medical needs, physical disabilities, or challenging behaviour.