To ask the Minister of Health to detail where responsibility lies within his Department for workforce planning for (i) Community Dental Services; and (ii) Hospital Dental Services.

My Department is responsible for strategic workforce planning, i.e. aiming to secure workforce supply over a 5 – 10-year horizon for health and social care, including dental services. It commissioned Skills for Health’s Workforce Review for Dental Services in Northern Ireland (August 2018) for that purpose. Community Dental Services and Hospital Dental Services were included within the remit of that review, which was published in July 2023.

Individual Health and Social Care Trusts are responsible for operational workforce planning, i.e. service delivery and safe staffing levels, operational vacancy management and recruitment, skill mix/band mix changes, career progression pathways and workforce design to support new models of care. They aim to ensure that their respective Community Dental Services and Hospital Dental Services are sufficiently staffed to provide those services commissioned from them by my Department.