For Wes Streeting - the new secretary of state for health and social care - there are no shortage of issues requiring his attention.

Given how much dentistry was spoken about during the 2024 general election - more than in any election campaign in living memory - the DDU would certainly expect dentistry to be towards the top of the new government's list.

As a strong voice for our members in Westminster, we will be wasting no time in putting your dento-legal interests at the heart of conversations with the government, as well as with new and returning MPs. That's what we do on your behalf, year in and year out. 

Reforming the regulator

At the top of our campaigning agenda is our call for root-and-branch reform of the GDC. Despite positive noises from government in recent years, this issue has been repeatedly left on the backburner, and it cannot be allowed to go on.

Members of the dental team are currently regulated under some the oldest legislation of any regulated healthcare professional in the UK. While the GDC continues to take some small steps to improve its current approach to regulation, it is limited by what it can achieve without legislative change.

At a time when a culture of fear sadly exists amongst the profession with regards their view of the regulator, the need for a modern, proportionate and timely regulatory regime has never been greater.

This really matters. In a recent survey, we asked DDU members to rank a number of issues relating to dentistry in order of what priority the new parliament should give them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, improved access to NHS treatment for patients was at the top of the list. However, in a very close second was reform of GDC regulation.

Dental professionals shouldn't be at the back of the queue on regulatory reform. We will be unapologetically vocal on that point, both in Parliament and in Whitehall.

Policies and priorities

We always challenge policy makers to take a step back and a consider a number of tests before they pull a 'policy lever'. What will the impact be on patients? What will the impact be on dental professionals? Is the policy ultimately deliverable?

Too often, we see policy supposedly being made with the best of intentions, but fundamental flaws - thereby failing to deliver the intended result. Given the problems we all know exist in NHS dentistry, we can expect the new government to be eager to make policy interventions - and so they should. But they must be the right ones. Policy must be thought through, with consideration given to the unintended consequences.

Regrettably, we have seen too many examples of this not being the case in recent times, where we have had to step in and make a robust case on behalf of members, who will ultimately bear the brunt on the front line.

Regulations and registration

For instance, practices trying to get to grips with the delivery of DCP direct access. This is a big change. However, the regulations haven't changed - merely NHS England's legal interpretation of them.

From the very start, the DDU was meeting with officials at the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to make the case for greater clarity and guidance for the dental team. This is not the sort of change that should ever be introduced without either of those. To do so would leave dental professionals at a loss to know precisely what the regulatory position is.

Then there was the last government's consultation on provisional registration for overseas-qualified dentists - proposals that the new government still might take forward. Simply put, we do not believe the proposals are workable or practical, from the perspective of either workforce or patient safety. One area where this is most readily apparent is in ensuring the supervision requirements for these new dental colleagues meet their needs.

We expect it will be extremely challenging to find the required number of dentists to provide appropriate supervision. This is based on our experience of the current difficulties in finding supervision for a small number of dentists who have conditions imposed via the GDC's fitness to practise process.

If these plans were to go ahead, there are likely to be a significant number of provisional registrants needing supervision for a broad range of needs. We just cannot see how it would work in practice.

That is why, before policy interventions make their way to the dental front line, we do our utmost to positively influence legislative and regulatory change in Westminster, both proactively and reactively.

Policy makers need to hear the voice of the dental professional, and we are proud to play our part in doing just that.