December 2006

Salaried Primary Dental Care Services: A Vision Janet Clarke, Chair of Central Committee for Community and Public Health Dentistry, British Dental Association. Objective To consider current legislative and policy changes in England that directly affect the Salaried Primary Dental Care Services (SPDCS) and explore the impact of these on the service after April 1st 2006. Issues The final outcome of the review of SPDCS - Creating the Future, set out proposals to modernise career structures for salaried dentists. The Acting Chief Dental Officer has also confirmed that NHS Employers will be negotiating a new payscale for non specialists in the service. The Department of Health has just issued a Factsheet on commissioning SPDCS after April 1st 2006 and Directions are awaited. Impact Salaried services in England will either be new Personal Dental Services or Primary Care Trust Dental Services from 1st April. All services will operate in the same way as the General Dental Service (Performers Lists, dental charges, use of FP17 and collecting Units of Dental Activity). Conclusion Services might have both specialist lead teams (for example providing Special Care Dentistry) and generalists teams (providing general dentistry). Services need clear and detailed service level agreements or contracts to describe and protect the valuable work they currently do.