Below is information on our practices main governing bodies.
General Dental Council (GDC)
The General Dental Council (GDC) is the UK-wide statutory regulator of just over 100,000 members of the dental team, including approximately 40,000 dentists and 60,000 dental care professionals. Their primary purpose is to protect patient safety and maintain public confidence in dental services. To achieve this, they register qualified dental professionals, set standards for the dental team, investigate complaints about dental professionals’ fitness to practise, and work to ensure the quality of dental education.
The Dentists Act 1984 provides the legislative framework for their work. It currently gives them powers to:
- grant registration only to those dental professionals who meet our requirements on education and training, health and good character. Only those who are registered with us can practise dentistry in the UK
- set standards for providers of dental education and training in the UK
- set standards of conduct, performance and ethics for the dental team
- investigate complaints against dental professionals and where appropriate take action through our fitness to practise process
- require dental professionals to keep their skills up to date through our continuing professional development requirements
Further information about the GDC can be found on their website https://www.gdc-uk.org/
Every team member working within our practice adheres to the General Dental Councils Standards for Dental Professionals in the UK.
Care Quality Commission (CQC)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) the independent regulator of health and social care in England. Their purpose is to ensure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.
The main roles they provide:
- register all care providers
- monitoring, inspecting and rating services
- taking action to protect people who use services
- speaking with an independent voice, publishing their views on major quality issues in health and social care
Throughout their work they:
- Protect the rights of vulnerable people, including those restricted under the Mental Health Act.
- Listen to and act on patients experiences.
- Involve the public and people who receive care
- Work with other organisations and public groups
Further information about the CQC can be found on their website https://www.cqc.org.uk/
The team ensure we are acting within the CQC’s guidelines to ensure the practice is fully compliant with regulations and requirements. Through this we are able to offer a safe, caring, effective, responsive and well led practice.
Information held by the CQC about our practice, including our most recent inspection report can be found on their website https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/1-1396322508/services
NHS England
NHS England’s role in dental commissioning is to ultimately achieve excellence and consistency in the commissioning of dental specialities in England to reduce inequalities, improve care for patients to ensure they are receiving the highest quality dental care in the most appropriate setting, delivered by professionals with the required skill set, resulting in improved outcomes and ensuring value for money for the taxpayer.
The Dental team led by the Chief Dental Officer has a cross system role, providing professional and clinical leadership to Public Health England (PHE), Department of Health (DH), Health Education England (HEE), Care Quality Commission (CQC) and other departmental bodies.
Key responsibilities include providing:
- professional and clinical leadership on all matters relating to dental education
- clinical input into areas of legislation that define how primary care dental services are provided and any changes to legislation need to be managed through DH
- clinical input into NHS England’s direct commissioning of all dental services
The team supports the development of policy and guidance and more generally they manage the interface with PHE, DH, HEE, CQC, dental societies and colleges on the wider work on behaviour change. They work with Dental Leads, Heads of Primary Care and Directors of Commissioning to develop a view on how and which vital services should be commissioned across the country.
As a team we comply with all NHS England’s policies and procedures to ensure we are providing high quality care to our NHS patients.
