National Health Service dentistry receives £3 billion of funding each year. We want to protect dental resources for dental care and prioritise access for patients, and have taken action, starting with our contract changes announced in July 2022 to ensure that the full dental budget made available each year is spent on delivering dental care.<\/p>
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 (ICBs) across England, along with the transfer of all funding. ICBs are 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.<\/p>
NHS England provided guidance for the ICBs that requires dental allocations to be ringfenced in 2023/24, with any unused resources being re-directed to improve NHS dental access in the first instance, rather than being spent on other services. In November 2023, NHS England confirmed that where ICBs had not spent all of their allocation on improving access to dentistry, they would be able to retain any underspend and use this to balance their bottom line and any other pressures. ICBs will decide how to use any forecast underspend in line with this guidance. We are currently considering arrangements for 2024/25.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4117", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Andrea Leadsom"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "South Northamptonshire"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Andrea Leadsom"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2024-02-05", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2024-02-05T17:19:14.49Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "17"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2024-01-29", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Dental Services: Finance"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make (a) an assessment of the potential merits of ring-fencing NHS dentistry funding and (b) an estimate of the potential impact of such ringfencing on the NHS budget.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4667", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mike Amesbury"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Weaver Vale"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mike Amesbury"} ], "uin" : "11855"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1685480", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department of Health and Social Care"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1685480/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
National Health Service dental treatment for children is free if you are under 18. Dental access for children has increased since the end of the pandemic. 6.4 million children were seen by an NHS dentist in the 12 months up to 30 June 2023 which compares to 3.6 million children seen during the 12 months up to 31 December 2020. No assessments have been made on the cost of mandatory dental checks for children under 11 in educational settings.<\/p>
NHS England is leading on the next stage of dental contract reform to address the challenges facing the delivery of NHS dentistry and to improve oral health outcomes. The changes announced by NHS England on 19 July 2022 include improving care to high needs patients, supporting practices to deliver more NHS care, and improving information for patients. The next steps in reform will consider what more can be done to move to a preventative approach and an overall improvement of the nation\u2019s oral health.<\/p>
The Department has published a toolkit to support the commissioning of supervised tooth brushing programmes in early years settings and schools with several local authorities already having schemes in place, funded via the Public Health Grant.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4117", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Andrea Leadsom"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "South Northamptonshire"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Andrea Leadsom"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2024-02-05", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2024-02-05T17:18:15.833Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "17"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2024-01-29", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Dental Health: Pupils"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will (a) make it her policy to introduce mandatory dental checks for children under 11 in educational settings and (b) make an estimate of the cost of such checks.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4667", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mike Amesbury"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Weaver Vale"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mike Amesbury"} ], "uin" : "11856"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1685481", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Work and Pensions"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1685481/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers. This approach is driven by the Payment Compliance strategy increasing CMS compliance influencing activities to tackle non-paying cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours. CMS applies a Continuous Improvement focus to Enforcement strategy and processes.<\/p>
From the latest CMS official statistics<\/a>, in the quarter ending In the quarter ending September 2023, of 180,000 Paying Parents due to pay via the Collect and Pay service:<\/p>