Your NHS dentistry and oral health update

Wednesday 19 January 2022 (Issue 39)

An update from Jason Wong

From 1 April 2022 Government amendments to the Health and Social Care Act regulations will mean that those working in dental practices aged 18 and over, who have direct, face to face contact with service users will be required to evidence that that they have received a complete course of a Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved COVID-19 vaccine, subject to limited exceptions.

This will include front-line workers, as well as non-clinical workers not directly involved in patient care but who nevertheless may have direct, face to-face contact with patients, such as receptionists and cleaners.

These regulations apply to both NHS and private healthcare.

Vaccines are the most effective way to protect against COVID-19 and save lives and prevent serious complications from this terrible virus and I encourage everyone in the dental family to make sure they are protected.

Next Monday, we're hosting a webinar on what you need to know about vaccination as a condition of deployment. This is for the whole dental team and I hope you and your colleagues can join us. 

We've also included a summary of the important changes to staff self isolation that are now in force, the detail of which is below.

Applications for this year's Chief Dental Officer's Clinical Fellows Scheme are now open too and close a week today. Please do encourage aspiring dental leaders to apply and more detail is below.

Best wishes,

Jason

Jason Wong
Deputy Chief Dental Officer England

Book your COVID-19 vaccination today!

NHS England strongly encourages members of the dental team who have not had both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to book their vaccine without delay.

Further information can be found on the NHS website.

Sign up for our webinar on vaccination as a condition of deployment

Sara Hurley, Chief Dental Officer England, is hosting a webinar for everyone who works in NHS dental services on vaccination as a condition of deployment.

Date: Monday 24 January 2022
Time: 19:00 - 20:00

The webinar will be held over Microsoft Teams. Once registration is complete, we will send you the joining link on the day. 

Please read the instructions on how Microsoft Live Teams events work before joining. Note that if you're attending the live event on the web rather than having Microsoft Teams installed on your computer, its better to use a media-source extension(MSE)-enabled web browser like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari.

What you need to know about vaccination as a condition of deployment 

On 6 January 2022, the Government made new legislation1, approved by Parliament, which amended the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (“the 2014 Regulations”).

This extends the scope of mandatory vaccination requirements for staff beyond registered care homes to health and wider social care settings in England.

The regulations provide that the registered person can only deploy or otherwise engage a person for the purposes of the provision of a CQC-regulated activity, in which they have direct, face to face contact with patients and service users, if the person provides evidence that they have been vaccinated with a complete course of a Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved COVID-19 vaccine. This is subject to specific exemptions and conditions. 

The regulations will apply equally across the public (NHS) and independent health sector.

The vaccination as a condition of deployment (VCOD) requirements include front-line workers, as well as non-clinical workers not directly involved in patient care but who may have face to face contact with patients, including ancillary staff such as porters, cleaners or receptionists.

The VCOD regulations allow a grace period for compliance and the requirement will come into force on 1 April 2022.

Key implementation dates

6th January 2022 – this is when the 12-week grace period between the regulations being made and coming into force, commences. This period is intended to give providers and workers time to prepare and meet the new regulatory requirements. Communication and engagement with staff, supportive in nature, should have commenced with workers before this date, to respond to vaccine hesitancy and drive vaccination uptake.

3rd February 2022 - the last date for workers in scope of the regulations to get their first dose of an authorised vaccine (unless exempt) so they can be fully vaccinated with a complete course of doses of an authorised vaccine (as listed in guidance on the approved COVID-19 vaccines and countries and territories with approved proof of vaccination) by 1 April 2022. Under current vaccination guidance, eight weeks are required between the first and second vaccine dose.

1st April 2022 regulations come into force.

Guidance for employers in England

The NHS has issued guidance aimed at NHS Trusts and Foundation Trusts, Integrated Care Systems (ICS), Community Interest Companies (CICs), and all organisations registered with CQC for the purposes of providing health care.

The guidance and principles set out can also generally be applied to other organisations providing NHS-commissioned services, such as primary care services and to the independent sector, such as NHS dental practices.

The approaches to formal processes detailed in this guidance may vary from organisation to organisation, depending on the facts and circumstances in each case, and as such, it is recommended that organisations seek their own legal advice on such matters.

We encourage all NHS dental contractors, practice managers and owners to read the NHS guidance below in full as a matter of priority.

The approaches to formal processes detailed in this guidance may vary from organisation to organisation, depending on the facts and circumstances in each case, and as such, it is recommended that organisations seek their own legal advice on such matters.

Resources available for engaging and communicating with staff to increase vaccination uptake

NHS England and NHS Improvement has curated resources to aid 1:1 conversations around staff vaccine hesitancy. For further information on how to have a 1:1 conversation to support vaccine uptake, please see the ‘Guidance to support COVID-19 vaccine uptake in frontline staff’.

Targeted engagement with communities where uptake is the lowest has proven to be an essential tool in tackling vaccine hesitancy. Most key messages about the vaccine should be consistent across all audiences. However, for specific groups and communities, tailored messaging which takes into consideration their concerns is important when delivering messages about the vaccine. NHS England and NHS Improvement has created communication toolkits specifically targeting groups that the data has identified as being vaccine hesitant.

What's in a COVID-19 vaccine and why are they safe and effective?

This animation explains what is in the COVID-19 vaccine and how it works, helping to tackle disinformation about the COVID-19 vaccination. 

Vaccine information in community languages

NHS doctors, nurses and other frontline staff have come forward to help reassure communities that COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective and have been independently tested to the highest standards. NHS staff have recorded messages in some of the most commonly spoken languages, apart from English, including Arabic, Bengali, Igbo, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Tibetan, Cantonese, Hakka and more.

Latest NHS staff self-isolation guidance

The following provisions apply to all staff working in NHS dental services:

In line with UKHSA’s changes to the self-isolation guidance for those who have received a positive COVID-19 test result, NHS staff who test positive will be able to leave self-isolation and return to work, if they test negative on days 5 and 6 after the date of their initial positive test, 24 hours apart, and providing they are medically fit, from Monday 17 January. This means if a staff member tests negative on the morning of day 6 and was negative 24 hours earlier, they can return to work on day 6.

To mitigate any potential increased risk of transmission, we require that all NHS staff then continue to test daily to day 10 after their initial positive test and stop at day 10 unless they remain or test positive.

For those who continue to test positive, if at day 10 they still test positive they must continue to isolate and continue to daily LFD test until a negative result or until day 14. If still positive at that point it is considered unlikely that they are infectious so they can return to work providing they are medically fit.

There is no change to testing of staff who are contacts of someone confirmed COVID-19 positive.

NHS staff should continue to access their tests via the universal offer online; UKHSA has assured us that there is sufficient supply to support any increase in testing and to provide access to tests in this manner.

In extremis, regional testing leads will have a small supply of tests to be accessed on an emergency basis.

Chief Dental Officer's Clinical Fellow Scheme 2022/23

The Chief Dental Officer's Clinical Fellow Scheme for dentists in England is sponsored by the Chief Dental Officer and managed by FMLM. The scheme was established in 2017 by Sara Hurley, Chief Dental Officer for England. It provides dentists who have had limited dental leadership opportunities and have not held a senior leadership role in dentistry, with a unique opportunity to spend 12 months in a national healthcare-affiliated organisation outside of dentistry practice to develop their skills in leadership, management, strategy, project management, and health policy.

Candidates must be able to demonstrate clear leadership experience and aspirations.

To find out more, candidates can access a full information pack about the scheme, providing further details about:

• Eligibility
• Application and recruitment process
• Salary and contractual arrangements
• Host information
• Recruitment timeline
• Frequently asked questions

Deadline for applications: 26 January 2022, 5pm.

Please note applications submitted after this time will not be accepted.

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Previous dentistry and oral health bulletins 

Previous bulletins can be accessed by clicking on the links below:

NHS primary care bulletin

The NHS primary care bulletin provides resources on health policy and practice and we encourage you to sign up for this, too. It is aimed at teams across general practice, dentistry, community pharmacy and optometry. 

COVID-19 advice, guidance and resources

NHS updates to the profession 

Key letters from the Chief Dental Officer and the NHS dentistry and oral health team are online here. 

Transition to Recovery: Dentistry's standard operating procedure

The latest version was published on Thursday 25 November. Changes to the previous SOP are in yellow. You can read the SOP online here. 

COVID-19: infection prevention and control dental guidance

The guidance is an appendix to and should be read in conjunction with the national guidance on infection prevention and control for COVID-19 . You can read the general guidance and the specialist dental appendix online here.

Avoidance of doubt note: provision of phased treatments

This document is to support dental professionals, and to clarify where it might be appropriate to provide phased treatment spanning over several courses of treatment (CoT). You can read it online here.

Health and wellbeing support