Update on Advancing Dental Care Programme

The Advancing Dental Care: Education and Training Review aims to develop an education and training infrastructure that can respond to the changing needs of patients and services. Below you'll find the latest update from ADC Chair Malcolm Smith, of the work the programme team has been doing in recent months to carry out the final phase of the Review.

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic caused some disruption to the ADC programme over recent months, as HEE’s Postgraduate Dental Deans (PGDDs) that lead on ADC workstreams were involved in managing the pandemic response and supporting the dental workforce. Nonetheless, PGDDs did not lose sight of the focus on the ADC programme and seized opportunities to learn lessons from the pandemic response, including the ability to work more collaboratively with stakeholders and more flexibility within teams. They expressed to be keen to take these lessons forward in our ongoing work.

ADC progress in 2019/20

Much of 2019/20 saw workstream leads collate evidence for their respective workstreams, informing the case for change to dental education and training. During the latter part of 2019/20, workstream leads completed the collection of evidence and carried out a series of engagement events with stakeholders to provide feedback on dental education and training pathways and options for reform. All of this evidence was used to feed into an ADC Interim Evidence Report. ADC had hoped to publish this report earlier but were disrupted by Purdah and a subsequent moratorium on publications during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ADC has now published the interim evidence document on their website alongside two individual ADC workstream reports: Academic pathways and Leadership. CLICK HERE to visit the ADC web pages and see ‘ADC Phase II reports’ at the bottom of page for copies of the reports.

In the final quarter of 2019/20, ADC considered the areas of work that needed to be taken forward in 2020/21.

ADC focus in 2020/21

The ADC programme established six new workstreams that were approved by the ADC Assurance Board that provides oversight and assurance to the strategic direction of the Review and alignment with HEEs other strategic objectives. The six workstreams that comprise this final phase of the ADC Review are:

  1. DFT/DCT1 modelling
  2. DCT 2/3 Modelling
  3. DST modelling and scoping of alternative models of accreditation
  4. DCP training pathways
  5. Distribution of training posts
  6. GDP & DCP Career Development in primary care

These workstreams focus heavily developing clear models / pathways for education and training for the whole dental workforce. They were informed by evidence and stakeholder feedback gathered in the previous phase of the Review that highlighted the importance of:

  • clear DCP training pathways & career progression and GDP and DCT career progression options
  • forging stronger training links with primary and secondary care
  • the need to develop a suitable model and for the distribution of training posts based on our current understanding of population needs

Workstream leads are working closely with relevant stakeholders to develop and refine the models. This will support the programme team develop a clear set of recommendations

A more comprehensive update on the ADC programme is available on the HEE website, along with the most recent VLOG from Malcolm