Key changes ahead for NHS dental contract
NHS dental contract
Changes to the NHS dental contract are due to come in from April 2026 in an attempt to try and boost the number of people receiving urgent and complex dental treatment on the NHS.
In its response to findings from a consultation run on NHS dental contract changes, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed this week that it planned to introduce a number of changes to better renumerate professionals for the work involved. This includes a new set payment of £75 per urgent course of treatment and three new complex care pathway payments covering multiple fillings and gum disease.
Legislation will be required to implement some of these proposals. The DHSC also confirmed that it still intended to deliver fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.
The announcement came a day after Healthwatch England (HWE) published a summary of recent local Healthwatch insight on barriers to urgent dental care, which was featured in The Guardian and other media.
“We welcome the government's attempts to incentivise dentists to provide more urgent dental appointments on the NHS. Our latest analysis of public feedback, published yesterday, shows that people continue to struggle to access urgent dental care.
"However, short-term tweaks to the dental contract over recent years have failed to make major progress towards addressing the NHS dentistry crisis.
"Until data is published, it is also unclear how the government is progressing on its pledge to deliver 700,000 new urgent dental appointments.
“To boost public confidence, transparent reporting of progress against current targets and details of longer term, fundamental reform of the NHS dental contract are needed.”
Chris McCann, Chief Executive Officer - Healthwatch England
The British Dental Association described the changes as “the biggest tweaks this failed contract has seen in its history” but also said wider reform was necessary.
The consultation findings show that while dental professionals thought the new proposed payments were fairer, they had mixed views on the extent to which they would drive up the number of urgent dental appointments for new or current patients.