How many additional training places for dentists will be created as a result of Health Education and Improvement Wales's new dental workforce plan?
Health Education and Improvement (HEIW) is responsible for post-graduation training; on average 50% of Cardiff dental graduates take up their first year of training in dental foundation training (DFT) in Wales. The remaining places are filled from graduates in other dental schools.
Any increase in commissioning of training places will be reliant on robust workforce data and modelling and there is specific commitment in the workforce plan to “Develop needs-based dental workforce models and scenario planning to inform workforce size and shape, and the future commissioning of education and training” this will inform what the size and composition of the future workforce will be.
In addition, another action to “Develop sharing of anonymised workforce and student data to identify employment destinations and retention of graduates in Wales” will illustrate how many existing Wales graduates are staying in Wales to work following graduation and this will further inform the sustainable pipeline for the future workforce and how many postgraduate training places are needed.
The dental workforce is not only made up of dentists and skill mix is a clear aspiration in terms of dentistry. There are clear actions within the workforce plan to increase the numbers of dental hygienists and dental therapists being trained. In addition, we have made it possible for dental hygienists and dental therapists to work within the NHS dental contract.