General Dental Council

We’re delighted to announce that Tom Whiting has been appointed as the GDC’s Chief Executive Officer and Registrar and will take up his position in the next three months. Tom joins from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) where he is Acting Director General, having been Deputy Director General since 2019. The IOPC has a similar purpose to the GDC, being dedicated to improving public trust and confidence in policing. Tom’s experience in leading their organisation through change, and building strong stakeholder relationships is an excellent fit for the GDC. Tom is looking forward to meeting dental professionals and external stakeholders to understand their views and priorities and work together to tackle our shared issues and make progress on shared goals. You can read more on our website https://lnkd.in/e4JWvqNZ

Last week, we were pleased to bring our student engagement programme to Queen's University Belfast’s Year 5 BDS students from its School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences. We’re grateful to Queens for being able to meet their latest group of soon-to-be regulated dental professionals, and for providing some photographs of their facilities. #TomorrowsDentistry Visit our dedicated student and trainee information hub to find out more about joining the dental team - https://lnkd.in/guNggaT3

We’ve provided an update on two important issues relating to our fitness to practise processes, including what we are doing to reduce the impacts our investigations can have on the health and wellbeing of participants. Our Executive Director, Stefan Czerniawski, describes the work we are doing on concerns raised by a coroner about the level of detail provided in determinations made by the Interim Orders Committee, and our commitment to report the cause of death of dental professionals where there is an active fitness to practise investigation. These are complex and sensitive issues that speak to the need to support dental professionals, public interest in the investigations we undertake and trust in the regulatory system. We know that they need to be approached with care and an understanding of how they affect people, which is why we want to explain the work that's underway. https://lnkd.in/gbM5yxqK

We’ve provided an update on two important issues relating to our fitness to practise processes, including what we are doing to reduce the impacts our investigations can have on the health and wellbeing of participants. Our Executive Director, Stefan Czerniawski, describes the work we are doing on concerns raised by a coroner about the level of detail provided in determinations made by the Interim Orders Committee, and our commitment to report the cause of death of dental professionals where there is an active fitness to practise investigation. These are complex and sensitive issues that speak to the need to support dental professionals, public interest in the investigations we undertake and trust in the regulatory system. We know that they need to be approached with care and an understanding of how they affect people, which is why we want to explain the work that's underway. https://lnkd.in/gbM5yxqK

We will be at the British Dental Industry Association Dental Showcase this Friday and Saturday (22-23 March) at London’s ExCel centre. The team will be set up at stand K21 and are looking forward to meeting delegates across the two days. We are also speaking at a panel session on the Saturday morning. The GDC’s Executive Director, Strategy, Stefan Czerniawski and Senior Clinical Dental Advisor, Shamir Mehta, will join other panellists to discuss how team safety can affect patient safety. They’ll also discuss how to identify risks and unintended consequences of dental practice. The session runs from 10:45-11:45am in the CDO Theatre, and will be hosted by Interim Chief Dental Officer, Jason Wong, and his team.

Last week we held the second and final stakeholder feedback event on the revision of the GDC’s Standards for Education. We welcomed a range of individuals and organisations across the two days, including education providers, students and membership associations, who all took part in discussions on some key themes within the revised Standards. We covered admissions to dental education and training, assessment and monitoring, and the support that can be provided for students and trainees. As a reminder, the GDC sets the Standards for Education as part of our role to quality assure dental education and training. They set out the requirements that all education and training providers must meet to deliver the programmes that lead to GDC registration for dental professionals. We use the Standards to help monitor and ensure providers continue to meet these requirements. We’re very grateful for the input from our stakeholders. The feedback we collected from them will play an important part in informing the public consultation on the revised Standards. We’ll publish this at the end of the year and will share this more widely to collect further insight from our partners and the public. You can read more about the Standards and learning outcomes on our website: https://ow.ly/Ij6Q50QWwzz

The Dental Leadership Network brings together dental leaders from across the industry to discuss the big issues in dentistry today https://lnkd.in/eNSTc9wh #DentalLeaders

As of this week, we know more about the dental workforce than ever before, because more than 25,159 dentists (57% of the register) provided voluntary information about their pattern of work when they renewed their registration with us in December. Discussions about the dental workforce and access to dentistry are all too common, and our own research has shown the difficulties for patients in accessing dental care, particularly NHS dental services. The high-level findings we’ve published this week give us a richer picture of where dentists work, the balance between private and NHS practice, and the balance between clinical and non-clinical roles and activities, across the four nations of the UK. Collecting this data is not a core function of our regulatory remit but we are well placed to collect it and we wanted to be able to do more to illuminate public debate on the dental workforce. We’ll invite dental care professionals to provide data when they renew their registration later in 2024. You can find the data report and highlights on our website https://lnkd.in/eS-JuEkd #dentistry #dental #dentists #workforce

Our student engagement programme continues at pace across the UK. Last week, GDC’s Policy and Engagement colleagues presented to the University of Plymouth, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry first year BDS and Dental Therapy and Hygiene students. They were so engaged with the presentation, and we were delighted to celebrate their career choices with them. #TomorrowsDentistry You can go to our dedicated student and trainee information hub to find out more about becoming a member of the dental team - https://lnkd.in/guNggaT3

Our Head of Scottish Affairs has been out and about recently in Glasgow, Inverness and Edinburgh engaging with first year BDS students University of Glasgow Dental School, at the BSc oral health science student conference UHI Inverness and with final year BSc (Hons) The University of Edinburgh Dental Institute. It’s always inspiring to meet with the next generation of dental professionals. Find out about becoming a member of the dental team - https://lnkd.in/guNggaT3