Your NHS dentistry and oral health update 

3 August 2026 

A focus on quality improvement 

I encourage you to take the time to explore the resources referenced in this bulletin, discuss them with your teams, and consider how they can support your local priorities and development ambitions.

Thank you for your continued dedication to improving oral health and providing outstanding care for patients.     

Kind regards,
Jason Wong

Quality improvement programme: resources and guidance

Quality improvement (QI) is a key component of the wider dental reforms and represents an opportunity for practices to use data, reflection, and peer learning to identify variation and undertake structured QI activities. The aim is to drive meaningful improvements in patient care and strengthen a culture of continuous improvement. 

The QI programme aligns with the recently published Quality Strategy for NHS Funded Care, developed by the National Quality Board (NQB). Please see more details about the strategy in the article below.

This year's QI programme focuses on the assignment of dental recall intervals in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. This topic was chosen to support oral healthcare teams in making consistent, evidence-based clinical decisions about recall intervals that are tailored to individual needs. Implementation of the NICE guidelines importantly enables oral healthcare teams to tackle health inequalities by reducing clinically unnecessary check-ups for those with lower oral health risk and focusing resources on providing care for those with more complex dental care needs, and access for new patients. 

We have had a strong response to the QI programme this year, with over 2,000 dental practices taking part. We hope those participating are enjoying the experience so far and are having insightful discussions within your teams. Local clinical leads will be contacting participating practices to provide some key messages and a local contact that practices can get in touch with for any queries or support on the QI programme.

To further support those taking part, a new QI page has been developed on NHS Futures. This is designed to be a central point for QI, to share resources, guidance, learning, and connect colleagues participating in the programme. The page will continue to be developed, so please keep checking for updates. To share feedback on what you would like to see on this page, colleagues can email england.dentaloptoms@nhs.net. If you need any help logging into NHS Futures, please contact the Futures support team via the platform login page. 

Practices may also find it helpful to revisit the QI webinar recording on the Futures platform, which includes practical examples of how the data packs can be interpreted and used to support improvement activity.

Updated QI data packs for participating practices will be made available at the end of each month during 2026/27 to support with identifying opportunities for improvement and to monitor impact of QI activities. Find out how to access these in Compass. 

At this stage of the programme, participating practices should have identified their practice QI lead and determined the membership of their external peer review group. If you have not yet determined the membership of your peer group or require any support to do this, please contact your local ICB team or clinical leaders such as your LDN chair.

New publications

Concise clinical record keeping: Standard Operating Protocols

We recognise that clinical teams will repeat common steps whilst treating patients. Writing these steps out in full each time in the clinical notes not only places an additional time constraint on the clinician, but also makes the details unique to the appointment contained within the notes harder to find. Therefore, the usage of standard operating protocols (SOPs) is proposed as a way of streamlining record keeping. We have developed example SOPs to help streamline record keeping practices for oral healthcare teams and encourage a more proportionate and concise way of recording clinical notes. For further information on the rationale and development of the SOPs, please see our previous bulletin. 

Clinical standard – Oral health and dental care for children and young people

Following our recent bulletin on children’s oral health, we have published the updated Clinical Standard: Oral health and dental care for children and young people. This reflects the latest evidence and best practice, supporting oral healthcare teams to deliver consistent, high-quality, preventative care for children and young people across healthcare settings. 

It sets out national expectations for children and young people’s oral healthcare, using a structured, level-based model of care, including care allocation, referral and triage, anxiety management, safeguarding, leadership and governance.

The standard was developed in collaboration with the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry and discussed in detail in the CDO’s webinar on the 23 June 2026. Watch the webinar recording.
 
Please share this publication with relevant colleagues and cascade it through your networks, including commissioners, providers, managed clinical networks, clinical leads, public health teams and wider stakeholders.

Framework for maintaining the oral health of our ageing population

This framework highlights the importance of needs assessments for local oral health. The focus is on prevention service planning, workforce training, shared care models and domiciliary care considerations for high quality outcomes for older adults.

The framework sets out a system wide approach for dental commissioners, local authorities, ICBs and providers, with an emphasis on partnership working across dental, health and social care services. Our bulletin and webinar in September will explore the framework in more detail.

NHS dentistry: Care pathways guidance 

In June 2026, the dental quality and payment contract changes introduced care pathways for patients with complex dental needs. These pathways support improved oral health outcomes for patients with either or both: 

• significant caries
• unstable and more severe periodontitis

These pathways recognise that eligible patients may have multiple underlying risk factors contributing to disease progression. Previously, the dental contract did not consistently support these more complex needs. As a result, these care pathways extend beyond reparative actions to include:

• risk factor management
• prevention
• support for self-care.

The new NHS dentistry: care pathways guidance sets out the clinical framework underpinning these care pathways. It should be read alongside the NHS dentistry: quality and payment reforms contractual guidance.

A recording of the NHS dental quality and payment reforms webinar on care pathways, held on 17 June 2026, is available on NHS Futures. 

NHS quality strategy and modern service frameworks 

NHS England, on behalf of the National Quality Board (NQB), has published a new Quality Strategy, a 10-year framework for delivering consistently high-quality care across all NHS funded services in England. Read the letter to NHS leaders with a call to action on quality.

The strategy brings together existing commitments setting out how improvement will be led across the system. Two new modern service frameworks (MSFs) for sepsis and cardiovascular disease sit alongside it, translating national ambition into clinical action.

The CVD MSF aims to cut premature deaths from heart attacks and strokes by 25 per cent within a decade. The Sepsis MSF sets out a pathway-wide approach, from prevention to community follow-up, with the ambition that by 2035 care is personalised, equitable and drives down preventable deaths.

Learning approach to complaints handling

Two recent cases published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman have highlighted concerns about gaps in NHS dental services – including patients not receiving appropriate treatment and providers’ confusion over responsibility for their care.

Alongside our continued efforts to reform dental services, we encourage oral healthcare teams to take a learning from complaints approach. This includes ensuring that: 

• patients needing complex or remedial care are not lost between services or referral waiting lists 
• providers understand their ongoing responsibilities and duty of care under NHS contracts, even once previous clinicians may have left a dental practice
• robust arrangements are maintained regarding referrals, follow-up and continuity of care, with oversight, whilst also striving to reduce unwanted variation in care provision
• practices maintain timely communication, appropriate clinical escalation plans and clear ownership of patient care, which is essential towards preventing avoidable harm and distress.

Help inform potential change in UK private dentistry

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a review of private dentistry, looking at both essential care and cosmetic treatments. The CMA is inviting independent dental practice owners to share their views in this survey by 14 August 2026. 

NHS celebrates 78th birthday

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Recent dentistry and oral health bulletins 

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Special focus bulletins 

The Office of the Chief Dental Officer and the NHS England 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