Latest updates from the GDC
Latest updates from the GDC - August 2022
Help shape our strategic plans
You can help shape our strategic plans for the next three years.
Our consultation is now open. We’re consulting at a time of considerable uncertainty for dentistry, so our plan sets out how we intend to manage the risks we’re facing while furthering our strategic ambition for a flexible and responsive system that:
- maintains dental education and training standards
- supports the registration of those who meet our standards
- promotes high standards in practice
- provides public protection if a dental professional falls short of expectations.
Our consultation includes our expenditure plans. We expect fees to be higher than the levels set back in 2019, to around £730 (+7%) for dentists and around £120 (+5%) for dental care professionals. These are our current best estimates only. The actual fee level will be set in relation to the final expenditure plan following our consultation.
Inflationary risks are affecting everyone in the UK, and our plans have been formulated with this in mind. We’re proposing to further manage inflationary risks by:
- driving efficiencies and challenging costs before fees are set in October each year
- not increasing our costs above those articulated for 2023, other than for inflation, unless further exceptional circumstances arise
- applying CPI at the most if fees do need to increase.
Please provide your views online by 6 September.
Freedom to Speak Up for the NHS
Dental professionals can help to improve safety and services for patients, and the working environment for the dental team, by speaking up about their concerns. NHS England set out its Freedom to Speak Up at work policy last month to ensure workers’ concerns are captured and considered by managers and senior leaders.
NHS organisations and those providing NHS healthcare services in primary or secondary care are required to adopt these minimum standards for the benefit of patients and those who work in the NHS. Reference and online training materials are now available, as well as signposting to further sources of advice and support.
CQC announces new assessment framework
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced it’s introducing a new assessment framework. It’s built on the CQC’s five key questions and ratings system. It’s the tool the CQC will use to set out its view of quality and make judgements.
It will be introduced in phases, and it will be made clear to you when it will directly affect health and care providers. The CQC has published the new framework now so healthcare professionals can start to become familiar with it. Quality statements and evidence categories have been published, and more details will be provided over the coming weeks and months.
GDC Annual Report and Accounts for 2021 published
Our Annual Report and Accounts for 2021 have now been published.
In their joint statement, the Chair Lord Toby Harris and Chief Executive Ian Brack, said:
“At the start of 2021, the pandemic continued to have a profound effect on patients and the public, the dental sector and wider economic landscape. Our statutory purpose remained unchanged: to protect the public. We continued to deliver this, reprioritising work to ensure that we operated efficiently and effectively.”
“We remain convinced that the Government’s proposals for reform of healthcare professional regulation are essential if we are to deliver an effective and proportionate regulatory system. We are also clear that we need reform to happen at pace.”
You can read the full message from our Chair and Chief Executive and find out more about the work we did in 2021 on our website.