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Access@dental Welcome to Access@dental - the regular update from Dr Mike Warburton and the DH Dental Access Programme (DAP) team. It is aimed at SHA dental leads and PCT dental commissioners and their support teams. If you work in one of these roles and haven't received this newsletter directly, please subscribe now and we will send you your own copy.

Issue 7 - February 2009 Gateway reference number 13474   Message from Mike Warburton   Dear colleagues, The New Year brings a new operating framework and its renewed commitment to improving access to dentistry. Our continued focus is on procuring additional capacity for patients, more effective contracting and excellent communication to patients. So far we are having a good response to the new procurements and news from around the country shows that dentists are taking part and the response to the procurement is already better than we expected. If you have not already signed up for one of the NHS Primary Care Commissioning 'Quality and Productivity' contract management events, I would encourage you to do so, as they are an excellent resource. To make an event booking, see www.pcc.nhs.uk/events. Please also take a look at the new handbook - more below. Lastly, I look forward to working with you and meeting some more of you this year. If there is any good practice that you would like to share, please do get in touch with me at: mike.warburton@dh.gsi.gov.uk. Thank you for your work on dental access, Mike     New dental access indicator to be rolled out   The implementation of the new patient experience dental access indicator is going ahead, following the completion of successful trials with twelve PCTs last year. The new indicator will assess the proportion of each PCT's population that has tried to get an NHS dental appointment and the percentage of those people who have been successful. It will be measured using the existing GP survey from Quarter Four 2009/10, with first results due to become available to the NHS in June 2010, and published in July. Dentistry questions included in the survey are: When did you last try to get an NHS dental appointment for yourself? Last time you tried to get an NHS dental appointment, what type of appointment where you trying to get? Last time you tried to get an NHS dental appointment, was it with a dental practice you had been before for NHS dental care? Were you successful in getting an NHS dental appointment? (If relevant) Why haven't you tried to get an NHS dental appointment in the last two years? The full Quarter Four 2009/10 GP survey is available here. The responses to these questions will also help inform estimates of future demand for NHS dentistry by establishing the number of people who report unavailability of NHS dentistry as the main reason they have not tried to get an NHS appointment. Please note, approximately 30% of patients will receive the dentistry questions, with the remaining 70% receiving questions on care plan owing to the fact that the patient survey is being split this for this quarter. Findings from the pilots The new indicator was piloted through a random telephone survey of 1,000 people in each of 12 PCTs during summer 2009. It was shown to be effective in differentiating between PCTs in terms of people's success in being able to get an NHS dental appointment. Monitoring arrangements for dental access - 2010/11 The new indicator will not change formal monitoring arrangements in 2010/11. PCTs will continue to be measured on delivery against their planned increase against the current Vital Sign (patients accessing NHS dentistry over 24 months). PCTs may, however, need to adjust their demand forecasts informed by the results of the new indicator to ensure their demand estimates are sufficiently robust to ensure the dental access goal is delivered by March 2011. The DH expects to use results of the new indicator from the Q4 GP survey as a key part of the summer 2010 plan sign off process. It is anticipated that the DH and CQC will start to use the new indicator from April 2011 onwards to assess whether PCTs have delivered the access goal. The current Vital Sign measure will continue to be monitored to complement the new public experience dental access indicator.     Essential focus on effective contract management   The new contract management handbook is now available to help PCTs manage their NHS dental contracts more effectively and consistently, and to ensure high quality provision for patients. Produced by NHS Primary Care Commissioning, the handbook brings together the latest evidence, advice, resources and best practice in a practical and supportive framework, in line with the goals set out in the NHS Operating Framework. Key sections include: Building relationships with providers Managing under-delivery Appropriate recall and treatment patterns Finance Management reporting. There is a strong emphasis throughout on how effective contract management is about a partnership between both parties, and how this must continue to be the overall approach. The handbook makes clear how important it is for dentists to be engaged in their PCT's dental agenda, and PCTs are encouraged to share data with practices and facilitate clinical networks so there is partnership working. The handbook is available online and its launch is being supported by a series of free regional Dental Quality and Productivity Workshop events for PCTs - see www.pcc.nhs.uk/events for full details and to make a booking.     News in brief   Dental access website redirected The dental access website (www.dentalaccess.nhs.uk) has been redirected to www.pcc.nhs.uk/dap-procurement so all resources are in one place. The Department of Health's commercial team will continue to ensure that content is updated with the latest documentation, as it becomes available. If you require assistance, please email dentalaccess@dh.gsi.gov.uk and a member of the commercial team will contact you. Communications pilots underway A pilot public communications campaign is under way in four areas - Wolverhampton City, Brighton and Hove, Newham and County Durham. Its aim is to develop and test methods of increasing awareness and improving public perceptions of access to NHS dentists. The full evaluation, will be made available to all PCTs by April 2010 however the template materials will be available on Comms link in February 2010. E Reporting Training Invites to the next round of licence roll out and training (licence 3 for PCTs) were issued on 11 January 2010, training will run from February to April 2010. The deadline for confirming your PCT's nomination was 25 January 2010. Any PCT that has not yet confirmed their place should do so as soon as possible. E Reporting Licence Agreements NHS DS have developed a formal User Agreement between NHS DS as the licence holder and the registered users of the system. A further agreement will also need to be signed by each organisation's Information Governance Manager who will have overall responsibility for the authorisation of users and the sharing and protection of data provided via E Reporting. All existing users and Information Governance Managers that have been contacted should ensure their agreement is signed and returned to NHS DS as soon as possible. Further details and copies of the User Agreements can be found on NHS DS website. CDO Update An electronic copy of the December 2009 issue is available here. An update on the work of the Dental Access programme can be found on page 2.     To subscribe to this newsletter If you would like to receive regular copies of this newsletter, please subscribe.   Do you have any feedback? We are keen to receive comments and case studies from PCTs working to increase access to NHS dental services. Please email julia.battersby@pcc.nhs.uk     If you would prefer not to receive further communications regarding Access@dental, please click here to unsubscribe