Chamber and committees

This is a matter for NHSboards.

To date, the dental workforce needs for Scotland have been considered by NHS Education for Scotland and published in biannual Workforce Planning in Dentistry reports, informed by advice from the Scottish Advisory Committee on the Dental Workforce.

The National Workforce Planning Framework, published in August 2005, introduced a new, annual workforce planning cycle. Within this cycle, NHS boards will produce workforce plans each April, and Regions each September. NHS board and region assessments of workforce demand will inform national decisions affecting supply.

NHS boards have been asked to consider dental services as part of their workforce plans, taking account the Action Plan for Improving Oral Health and Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland, and local implications.

The Scottish Advisory Committee on the Dental Workforce last met in May 2004. Its members will continue to contribute professional advice and views to the national workforce planning process.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-23398 on 8 March 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The responsibility for approving salaried dentist posts rests with NHS boards. The latest information held centrally from NHS boards indicates that the following number of salaried dentist posts have been approved in each NHS board area.

NHS Board	Number of Approved Salaried Dentist Posts1,2
Argyll and Clyde	18
Ayrshire and Arran	8
Borders	9
Dumfries and Galloway	13
Fife	11
Forth Valley	12
Grampian	15
Greater Glasgow	23
Highland	44
Lanarkshire	2
Lothian	18
Orkney	8
Shetland	7
Tayside	2
Western Isles	6
Scotland	196

Note:

1. Salaried dentist posts range from 0.1 whole-time equivalent (WTE) to  one WTE.

2. The information is for salaried general dental practitioner posts only and does not include posts where community dental officers provide general dental services, i.e. joint CDS/GDS posts.

The responsibility for employing salaried dentists rests with NHS boards. Not all salaried dentist posts are filled by a single dentist, for example some posts are jointly filled by a number of dentists. Information on the number of salaried dentists can be found on the Scottish Health Statistics website http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/info3.jsp?pContentID=3446&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&.

The number of salaried dentists contained in the Workforce Statistics includes community dental officers who spend part of their working week providing general dental services, i.e. joint CDS/GDS postholders.

No information is held centrally on the whole-time equivalence of salaried dentists or joint CDS/GDS postholders.

Information on specialist neonatalnurses is not held centrally. Informationon the number of nurses and midwives in NHSScotland, broken down by NHS board, ispublished on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics,at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Comprehensive guidance has beenissued to local authorities on the review of local services, through which the efficiencyimprovements will be delivered. The guidance sets out the key principles and processesfor assessing the strategic relevance, quality and value for money of each service.It emphasises the importance of fairness and objectivity, with local authoritiesseeking efficiency improvements in a similar way internal and externally for allservices and all providers, with transparency in decision making. Funding reductionsshouldn’t be passed on in a pro-rata way across all providers without evaluationof the strategic appropriateness of the services or the scope for improved efficiencies.

The Scottish Executive believessignificant efficiencies are achievable in the programme and will expect to seeevidence of that for the next spending review, but monitoring arrangements willalso allow local authorities to record any adverse impact of budget changes on servicesand service users to inform future funding decisions.

The Scottish Executive believessignificant efficiency improvements are achievable through local reviews of thestrategic relevance, quality and value for money offered by all services fundedthrough the Supporting People programme. It is vital that local authorities retainthe freedom to secure maximum efficiency improvements where they judge best. Imposingthe same level of savings on all providers doesn’t offer any incentive to providersto improve efficiencies.

However, the Scottish Executivehas issued guidance that all services and service providers must be treated fairlyand objectively, with transparency in decision making and recording of decisions,and efficiency improvements sought by local authorities internally and externally.

As part of the monitoring arrangements,agreed with stakeholders, local authorities will have to submit statements froma representative range of providers confirming they agree the process has been fair.If providers are unwilling to sign such a statement the local authority has to explainthe circumstances and the Scottish Executive will investigate further. Analysisof the first monitoring returns does not appear to indicate that external providershave been disproportionately affected so far, but we will continue to monitor thisaspect very carefully.

Community Care Providers Scotlandand the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, who helped produce the materialset out in Supporting people: a view from Scotland’s voluntary sector,are both represented on the group which is helping the Scottish Executive monitorthe impact of the Supporting People budget changes made in the last Spending Reviewand the impact of the local reviews of services funded by the programme.

We have indicated to CommunityCare Providers Scotland that the material they have provided will be taken intoaccount in decision making on future funding, alongside the research currently beingconducted on the cost/benefits of the programme as a whole and the monitoring exercisementioned above.

Our commitment in thePartnership Agreement means that, from 31 December 2005, the maximum time a patient with a guarantee should wait for a firstoutpatient consultation at a consultant-led clinic, following referral by a generalmedical or dental practitioner, is 6 months. This waiting time is measured fromthe date the referral letter is received by the hospital to the date of theoutpatient consultation.

Fair to All , Personal toeach, published in December 2004, setout our plans to reduce this national maximum waiting time to 18 weeks by 31 December 2007.