The Committee will receive an update from the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) Integrated Care Board on access to dental care and advice.

The Committee received a report from Hugh O’Keefe, Senior Programme Manager, Pharmacy, Optometry and Dental, Buckingham, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board, on NHS dental services in Reading.

The report explained that on 1 July 2022 the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) Integrated Care Board had taken on delegated responsibility for Dentistry, alongside Pharmacy and Optometry. Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) had an explicit purpose to improve health outcomes for their whole population and the delegation would allow the ICB to integrate services to enable decisions to be taken as close as possible to their residents. The ICB were working to ensure that residents could experience joined up care, with an increased focus on prevention, addressing inequalities and to achieve better access to dental care and advice.

The following points were noted:

·         Access to services were improving with a 21.4% increase from February 2022;

·         Since the previous update no dental practices in the Reading area had left the NHS service;

·         An increase in contract delivery was forecast for 23/24;

·         The pilot Flexible Commissioning scheme had taken place from 1 June 2023 to 31 March 2024, 33 practices in BOB had taken part to support patients to access dental care.  The ICB had agreed that the service should continue for a further year from 1 April 2024;

·         It was noted there had been a low take up of the Flexible Commission scheme in Berkshire West;

·         The ICB had been working as part of an NHS South-East programme to replace Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) that were lost due to contract hand backs and reductions, the aim was to start implementation from April 2024;

·         Further changes to the NHS Dental contract had been announced by government in February 2024.  This had included payment of a new patient premium, supporting dentists to treat one million new patients, increasing the minimum UDA price to £28 and a ‘Golden Hello’ payment for dentists in areas of need;

·         Other ambitions in the new NHS contract included water fluoridation; increase focus on prevention, dental support for life programmes, and focus on family hubs.

It was noted that dental take up was not at pre-pandemic levels and the low flexible commissioning take up in Berkshire West could be due to practices going back to previous levels in terms of delivering their targets.

The Committee discussed the report and presentation and thanked Hugh for the information.  It was requested that a further update be provided to the Committee in six months times.

Resolved -    That a further presentation/report be submitted to the Committee in six months.