For the third year Sara Hurley, the CDO for England, and her team will be present at the BDIA Dental Showcase in Birmingham. The team will once again be available on the CDO Zone to meet and engage with all oral health professionals who are attending the show. Showcase provides the ideal opportunity for the CDO to inform the profession of the ongoing oral health workstreams and priorities in NHS England and NHS Improvement, whilst also being available to meet with the healthcare professionals who are delivering oral care to our population.

As well as this, Sara will be giving a briefing in the Showcase’s Innovation Theatre. On the Saturday of Showcase, the briefing will be open to all with seats taken on a first come first served basis. This briefing will be followed by a panel discussion involving Sara and her executive team. We invite you all to come along.

The CDO Zone will feature a mini lecture theatre, which will feature a rolling programme of free to attend presentations and workshops. Some of topics being covered include:

Reforms to the dental contract in England

This will give detail on where the programme is currently, the outcomes of the evaluation, feedback from practices who are involved with the prototype contract and what the plans are for the roll out of the reformed contract.

Changing NHS Structures

Under the new NHS structures dentistry will need its place. The context of how oral care pathways fit in with an integrated care system, primary care network and managed clinical network will be explained, as will what the profession can do to enhance dentistry’s offer to the NHS.

NHS Interim People Plan

In June 2019 the NHS published its Interim People Plan, with a section on the future dental workforce. This provides the vision of what the future dental workforce will look like, what skillset it needs, and how to make the “NHS the best place to work”.

Advancing Dental Care (ADC)

Now in its second phase, the ADC program has gathered more data from which Health Education England can develop a dental education and training infrastructure that supplies the dental workforce with the skills to respond to the changing oral health needs of patients.

Level 2 Accreditation

As national guidelines for level 2 accreditation are implemented in regions countrywide, case studies of how oral surgery, endodontics and periodontal services are provided will be explained. This will allow patients to be seen by the right clinician in the right place at the right time.

Digital Transformation

As the development of NHSX continues there is a further push to digitally transform the NHS and NHS dentistry. Patient safety and quality improvement will need to be enhanced with the completion of the digital integration of patients’ dental care experience into the NHS digital road map.

Clinical Leadership

The CDO fosters clinical leadership of the future via the National Chief Dental Officers Fellowship Scheme. This scheme provides a cadre of dental professionals with the skills and confidence to fulfil the commitments of the future leadership requirements of the NHS

Sara is keen for this to be a platform for two-way learning, so you can share your experiences, thoughts, frustrations and feedback, to those who directly influence policy change. She, and her team, will be available to speak with delegates throughout the entire duration of BDIA Dental Showcase.

Dentistry is one of the four pillars of NHS primary care and dental care will continue to be a statutory NHS service. Visit the CDO Zone and have your say, learn about the changing landscape of the NHS and share your views into the future of NHS dental care.