To ask the Minister of Health (i) to detail when a workforce plan was last put in place to determine existing and projected service pressures in (a) Community Dental Services; and (b) Hospital Dental Services; and (ii) for an update on progress made.

Establishing a dental workforce with the capacity and skills to meet the future demands of the Northern Ireland population is a complex task involving contributions from multiple stakeholders including my Department, the Strategic Planning and Performance Group, Health and Social Care Trusts and staff representatives.

The Skills for Health’s Workforce Review for Dental Services in Northern Ireland final report, which was published in 2023, had input from all of these groups. The stakeholder engagement event which followed the publication of the report provided an opportunity for voices to be heard from other important groups such as dental nurses, dental hygienists and dental laboratories.

The Community Dental Service (CDS) plays a central role in prevention, special care dentistry, care of vulnerable groups, children and older people, and has been instrumental in improving children’s oral health outcomes through community programmes. The Workforce Review highlights that CDS will, amongst other things, need to shift towards new models of care, integrated with wider health and social care services and make better use of skill mix. Progress has been made in this regard with the development of Extended Duty Dental Nurses who play an increasingly important role in the CDS by supporting the delivery of preventive oral health interventions, including the application of fluoride varnish.

Also, in 2023 the Department produced the Northern Ireland Children’s Oral Health Improvement Plan (NIOHIP). Among the CDS workforce relevant recommendations contained in this report were that the dental epidemiology programme needs to be further supported and embedded within the CDS. SPPG has worked closely with Trusts to ensure the stability of this programme through investment and staff training. There is now a rolling Northern Ireland annual survey programme staffed by enthusiastic and dedicated CDS personnel.

A further CDS relevant recommendation in the NIOHIP was to enhance CDS’s role in preventive programmes. Earlier this year, I agreed three-year funding of £400,000 per year to expand the Northern Ireland evidence-based children’s supervised toothbrushing programme (Happy Smiles). This involves additional funding for CDS staffing across all Trusts.

Hospital Dental Services (HDS) are delivered by a small but highly specialised workforce that includes consultants, specialty registrars, staff grades, and foundation dentists. This team provides complex, specialist dental care and forms an essential support system for both the CDS and the General Dental Services.

Although projections indicate that only a modest increase in hospital dentist numbers will be needed to meet population growth the Workforce Review for Dental Services notes significant gaps in workforce intelligence. Key data such as age profiles, retirement intentions, and likely attrition are either incomplete or unavailable, making longterm planning challenging. These information gaps limit confidence in future workforce modelling and highlight the need for better data collection to ensure that HDS can remain resilient and responsive to growing and changing patient needs. It is hoped that the introduction of encompass will greatly assist with the collation of high-quality Trust data.

It has still been possible however for SPPG to work with the HDS to help address challenges to staffing capacity and skill mix. Within the Belfast Trust, two new oral surgery consultant posts and a new oral medicine post were established 2025/26. To make best use of this extra capacity, SPPG has worked with both the South eastern Trust and the Belfast Trust to arrange the transfer of patients from South eastern waiting lists to Belfast. This redistribution will help reduce overall waiting times across Northern Ireland for these specialist services.

In parallel, SPPG has also supported the Northern Trust by securing additional funding for an orthodontic consultant post, addressing the growing pressures facing hospital orthodontic services.

Most recently, recurrent funding has been agreed for the Belfast Trust of approximately £200,000 annually to expand the Urgent Student Clinic. This clinic not only provides highquality clinical teaching for undergraduate dental students but also offers an essential service for patients experiencing dental pain who are struggling to access care through General Dental Services. The expansion will therefore strengthen both workforce training and patient access to urgent dental care.