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Dental Core Training (DCT) 2023

The applications for DCT places from September 2023 closed on 2 February 2023 and applicants will undertake interviews over the next few weeks.

More information is available on the NHS Dental Education Hub.

Preferencing of places opened on 11 April 2023 and will close on Friday 19 May 2023 at 14:00 although it will reopen in between iterations of offers.

We have been highlighting an issue which applicants need to be aware. There is a significant pay disparity between DCT training places in England, Wales and Scotland on the one hand and Northern Ireland on the other. National governments set these rates independently in each country of the UK. We believe that this needs to be explicitly highlighted to new applicants as we have been campaigning for the Department of Health in Northern Ireland to increase DCT salaries to comparable levels, but this has not yet happened.

Some of our work in this area was highlighted in Peter Dyer's blog from last summer.

We believe that applicants need to be aware of salary levels before committing to a post. Therefore, we list the current basic salaries for all four UK countries below. Of course these come with the caveat that salaries might change between now and September, and therefore further information should be requested at the time you agree to take up a post. Also, additional supplements are available in each country for on-call work and work during unsocial hours. Trainees should clarify whether these extra payments are available for any post they apply to.

The below is based on published information which is at times difficult to find and was not available as part of the advert although links to pay circulars are provided on the DCT webpage.

Salaries as per available pay scales (at time of writing):

  England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
DCT 1 £40,257 £33,133 £40,509 £36,009
DCT 2 £40,257 £35,298 £41,029 £38,218
DCT 3 £51,017 £37,466 £43,272 £40,429