To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 31 October (HL Deb, col 426) concerning the identification by NHS England of 10 areas of deprivation for special treatment on childhood oral health, what that special treatment will consist of.
Answered on
15 December 2016
NHS England, Public Health England and the Department are working together to finalise the scope of the Oral Health Prevention Programme. The Government anticipates that it will include initiatives to help children who are at greater risk of dental disease to attend the dentist at appropriate intervals and to receive high quality care, including prevention, when they attend.
We expect to be able to make an announcement on the areas selected in the coming months. Using data from the latest under five year old survey, detailing decayed, missing and filled teeth, has enabled the identification of areas deemed to have the greatest deprivation.
Pilots are not being established. This is a targeted programme, the learning from which will be available to inform future commissioning in particular areas where needed.