Dental programme board
Established in 2009, the Dental Programme
Board (DPB) is one of four professional advisory groups that are
sub-committees of Medical Education England (MEE). The Board
also has an executive structure within the Department of Health and
reports through the Primary Care Division within the Commissioning
and System Management Directorate.
Co-chaired by the Barry Cockcroft, Chief Dental Officer for
England, and Chris Franklin, Postgraduate Dean & Committee of
Postgraduate Dental Deans and Directors (COPDEND) Chair, the DPB’s
membership includes representatives of professional bodies,
employers, trade unions and senior managers from the Department of
Health and NHS.
Vision
The DPB is committed to shaping: "An
appropriately trained dental workforce which meets the demand and
need for treatment, reducing disease and oral health promotion in a
cost effective manner taking into account improvements in oral
health and the scope for team working through the delegation of
duties from dentists to dental care professionals."
Workstreams
The DPB’s portfolio consists of six key
projects, each led by a recognised expert from the relevant
field:
Demand for dentistry
Aim: to estimate the demand for both NHS and
private dental services in order to inform future forecasting of
dental workforce requirements.
Project lead: Sue Gregory
Dental workforce supply-side
model
Aim: to establish what the workforce capacity
is, taking into account the increasing number of dentists and DCPs
in training.
The board has commissioned Professor Peter Robinson, Deputy Dean
of the School of Clinical Dentistry of Sheffield University to
construct a model of the supply of dentists and DCPs. In this
connection, Professor Robinson is undertaking a survey of the
working patterns and career intentions of a sample of dentists and
DCPs. In his letter, the Chief Dental officer, Barry Cockcroft
encourages those dentists and DCPs included in the sample to
participate in the survey.
To see the letter, please click here
Project lead: Derrick Willmot
Skill mix
Aim: to assess the contribution that DCPs
(such as dental therapists and dental nurses) can make to the
delivery of dental care. Also to identify innovations,
opportunities and barriers relating to optimised skill mix.
Project lead: Barry Cockcroft
The Demand, Supply and Skill mix projects
are very closely linked. The outcome of these three
projects will enable the DPB to accurately forecast future dental
workforce requirements, informing future decisions on the number of
places needed in dental schools and other training
institutions.
Small dental specialties
Aim: to establish the number of specialists
required in each of the thirteen dental specialties and the number
of the training posts required to achieve and maintain these
numbers.
Project lead: Chris Franklin
Review of oral surgery
Aim: to identify examples of good practice
around the deployment of oral surgeons in the delivery of NHS
dentistry and, taking account of these examples, to assess the
scope for their wider use.
To see the report, please click here.
Project lead: Nairn Wilson
The introduction of foundation
training to dentistry
Aim: to explore the introduction of a two year
foundation training course for newly qualified dentists (as
resources permit) to replace the one year vocational training
course currently in existence.
Project lead: Jerry Read
Programme board membership
Programme board meeting dates