Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what impact NHS England's Starting Well scheme has had to date; and whether they have any plans to extend that scheme.

The ‘Starting Well’ programme, led by NHS England at the request of the Department, is designed to reach out to families with young children in 13 high need areas who are not currently under the care of a dentist. There are now over 300 practices participating in the scheme. The first schemes began in spring 2018.

NHS England has commissioned an external evaluation of the scheme and its impact. NHS England advises the first information from this evaluation is expected to be made available later in spring 2019.

NHS England has since developed a complementary scheme ‘Starting Well Core’ which allows areas not involved in the original scheme to commission and fund locally similar approaches based on their assessment of local needs.