How is the Welsh Government working to bolster the number of dental support staff in the Welsh NHS?
Our National Workforce Implementation Plan sets out actions to improve retention, including improving staff wellbeing, and continued investment in education and training.
The Welsh Government has and will continue to invest in the workforce required to support our health system in Wales and our investment will be maintained at £283.126 million for 2024-25. This will support education and training programmes for healthcare professionals in Wales.
Undergraduate Dental Hygiene and Therapy and Dental Hygiene training places have increased in recent years. Existing training provision has been expanded at Cardiff University and in North Wales training is provided via Bangor University.
A set of targeted workforce plans have been published or are in development as a result of priorities identified in A Healthier Wales: Our Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care Workforce, which was published in 2020, setting a 10-year strategic direction and vision for workforce transformation. These specific workforce plans span mental health, pharmacy, dentistry nursing and primary care.
Building on the work of A Healthier Wales, we recognised the need for an immediate focus on the health workforce and therefore developed the National Workforce Implementation Plan (NWIP). The NWIP contained a series of immediate and short-term actions focusing on key issues for NHS Wales staff in key areas such as recruitment, retention and health and well-being.
Through the NWIP, HEIW has developed a Dental Strategic Workforce Plan heiw.nhs.wales/files/eng-swp-dental-pdf/ that provides clear actions 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.