Your NHS dentistry and oral health update

14 February 2023 (Issue 58)

An special focus on clinical leadership

An update from Sara Hurley and Professor Sir Stephen Powis 

Dear colleague,

The presence and absence of effective leaders in healthcare can significantly impact the quality and outcomes of care received by patients. The delivery of safe, quality, compassionate healthcare is dependent on having effective clinical leaders both at the frontline and throughout our health and care systems.

We are delighted to highlight once again that applications are open for Chief Dental Officer's Clinical Fellows scheme. This leadership programme challenges thinking and commands self-reflection, a journey to be embarked upon with other like-minded, supportive, multi-professional fellows. Working on a variety of national initiatives in key healthcare organisations, clinicians collectively develop crucial leadership and management skills over the course of the fellowship. We strongly encourage any dentists in any dental setting to apply for these positions. We await the re-opening of the NHS Regional Clinical Leadership Fellow Scheme, applicable to the wider team of dental care professionals.

Reflecting on his first year as Regional Chief Dentist in the Midlands, Adam Morby shares how much has been achieved within his post and demonstrates what can be achieved through strategic clinical leadership. Relationships spanning local, regional, and national positions is how we build a cohesive and integrated approach, to putting the mouth back into the body.

We continue to develop a strong national team and strive to position more regional leads across England. This will mean that our hard-working NHS dental teams, the wider health service and, most importantly, patients are best served whatever the future brings.

Chief Dental Officer’s Clinical Fellowship Scheme 2023/24

Applications for the Chief Dental Officer’s Clinical Fellowship Scheme 2023/2024 have now opened, closing on Wednesday 22 March 2023.  Applications are submitted through the online portal hosted by the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management.

The Chief Dental Officer's Clinical Fellowship Scheme is a 12-month experiential leadership development opportunity, aiming to support dentists in England who demonstrate leadership potential and aspirations, and to equip them with the skills required to be effective and impactful leaders.

This unique opportunity, endorsed by the Chief Dental Officer England, enables fellows to work within a national healthcare-affiliated organisation that supports clinical dental practice and the wider dental system. These strategic positions allow fellows to develop their skills in leadership, management, strategy, project management and clinical/health policy.

The scheme is open to dentists from all sectors; meet some of the current fellows further down in this bulletin.

For further details regarding eligibility, recruitment, salary, contractual arrangements, timelines, and the application please visit the Chief Dental Officer's Clinical Fellow Scheme webpage.

Chief Dental Officer's Clinical Fellow Scheme 2022/23

I hope that this will equip me with a unique insight from both the policy maker and the clinical team’s perspective.

During my fellowship, I have been working with the Leadership and Lifelong Learning Team (better known as the NHS Leadership Academy) to explore leadership development opportunities for dentists and dental care professionals. I have been involved in several local and regional projects and look forward to the opportunity of leading on key national projects which contribute to healthcare policy. I hope that this will help me to lead positive change within the healthcare system in future leadership roles.

I am currently working at NHS England North West on projects including dental workforce strategy, sedation services, delegation of dental commissioning and recommendations for transforming paediatric and special care services in community dentistry.

I am working to address some of the current challenges facing dentistry, such as improving the management of high needs patients, access to NHS dental services, as well embedding a learning from events culture amongst dental care professionals, in relation to patient safety incidents.

Leadership in focus: A year as the Regional Chief Dental Officer

The relationships built and experience gained will be invaluable as stakeholders including NHS England, Health Education England, NHS Digital, public health and other specialist teams merge to form the new NHS England.

Representing dentistry at a regional level has provided many opportunities to be involved in Local Dental Networks and Committees, supporting regional and local teams to address their most pressing needs through place-based Managed Clinical Networks. Working with other regional leads in dentistry to share ideas, views and learning on reform programmes has been invaluable. This has all contributed to the improved flow of information throughout regional and local networks, as well as both from and to the national teams. I have been able to facilitate the dissemination of national priorities and strategies to enable improved patient care, while providing a unique perspective as regional lead for NHS dentistry.

The delegation of primary care commissioning services to Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) has also brought further opportunities and potential for the profession to work collaboratively at a community level with other professional colleagues. This allows a truly integrated approach to patient care and oral health improvement. In the Midlands, we are working with Commissioning Support Units to improve data analysis for population health. The aim is to identify care needs of patients across geographical and clinical areas, which can be addressed to help reduce health inequalities.

The Dental Development Board (DDB) is a newly formed board that brings together all commissioners, ICS and education colleagues, and Primary Care Networks across the Midlands. This will provide the opportunity for collaboration across the 11 ICSs across the Midlands, which represents over a quarter of the ICSs in England. The key workstreams will focus on workforce, education, inequalities, demand and capacity, urgent care, and digital innovation. These workstreams in turn will allow for leadership development as colleagues from Foundation Dentist programmes, Managed Clinical Networks, primary care dental teams and wider healthcare systems become involved. This will encourage leadership roles that will reach into Integrated Care Boards, Integrated Care Partnerships, Local Authorities and Health and Wellbeing Boards.

There is a wider acceptance of the importance of oral health as part of general health. This offers the opportunity to ‘put the mouth back into the body’ through leadership and the dissemination of information about oral health and appropriate care via teams, other than dental ones, involved in the pathway of care for individuals.

Leadership, clinical input and working at a wider healthcare level has been vital in:

• Identifying and assessing priorities.
• Assessing and evaluating current prevention, health promotion and care models.
• Redesigning services to ensure that the care is delivered in the right place, at the right time, by the right provider.
• Working in partnership across the health and care system.
• Ensuring that the care and service models are fit for purpose, with emphasis on access to evidence-based, safe, equitable and high-quality care in line with professional and clinical standard/best practice.

It is a truly exciting and challenging time to engage with NHS dentistry where leadership is both valued and making significant impact.

British Dental Industry Association - Dental Showcase 2023

Building on the success of last year, the Chief Dental Officer (CDO) England will be returning to the British Dental Industry Association (BDIA) Showcase. The BDIA Showcase 2023 will be held at the ExCel Centre, London, on Friday 24 March and Saturday 25 March 2023.

Register for your free pass here, giving you access to both days of the exhibition.

Chief Dental Officer Sara Hurley and her team will be hosting a series of presentations at the CDO Theatre, including a session that promises further information on the life after the clinical fellowship discussed in this bulletin. Other subject areas featured in the CDO programme include:

• Workforce – using skill mix in your practice
• Professional standards – patient safety, lone working guidance, assurance of quality of care, information governance, clinical standards for implementing and delivering care
• Oral health regulation – Dental Performers List, Performers List Validation by Experience (PLVE), changes to Oversees Registration Exam (ORE)
• Career pathways – clinical and non-clinical opportunities
• Oral health inequalities – Core20PLUS5, access to services and caring for patients with high needs
• Oral health and systemic health – cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer care pathways

Each topic will be split into a series of short talks, panel discussions and presentations from leading subject experts in their field, with time for Q&A. Further opportunities for discussions will be available on the adjoining CDO Zone stand.

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Recent dentistry and oral health bulletins 

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

Special focus bulletins 

Chief Dental Officer Sara Hurley and the NHS team regularly produce 'special focus bulletins' on clinical priorities and key aspects of patient care. These bulletins summarise the key information dental teams need to know and act as a refresher, combining best practice, expert opinion and useful resources. If you would like to suggest a topic for a future special focus bulletin please email the CDO's team at England.CDOExecutive@nhs.net 

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.