Service costs payments to practices providing Dental Foundation Training (DFT) have been uplifted for the first time in a decade, as a result of our determined campaigning.
Payments will be uplifted in line with the expenses increase applied to contracts, rising from £64,164 to £65,244 per year.
This rise follows a freeze in the value of these payments since 2014.
We have persistently called for the payments to be uplifted, noting the impact the freeze has had on the recruitment and retention of training practices.
The service cost payments cover the expenses associated with the treatment that Foundation Dentists provide and all of the associated practice costs with them working as dentists during their DFT year.
We will not let up on the call for the real terms erosion in the value of the payments over the last year to be addressed, through a significant uplift to payment, and for uplifts to now be applied on an annual basis.
“Dental Foundation Training practices shape tomorrow's NHS dentists,” says GDPC Chair Shawn Charlwood.
“The freeze in support costs has been an act of self-harm. If we're ever going to restore the pipeline of talent into this service, the increase we've secured must be a first step.”