Chamber and committees

Thanks. Other people will ask you about childsmile. I will just say that I share your view of it.

I want to turn to the issue of dental corporates operating in the United Kingdom, some of which are now operating in Scotland. What impact do you think that that has on NHS dental services?

I want to pursue the point about which aspects of oversight a board is responsible for, which Antony Visocchi touched on. Let me take the example of a scale and polish, which one would think is an aspect of front-line prevention work. Some 59 per cent of providers are operating at pre-pandemic level, so there is still a way to go to recover that service. Does your board have any oversight of such treatment? Is it happening in your areas? Can you take action, or does the problem belong to someone else? I put that first to our witness from Shetland.

Although I would always note that registrations are not activity, I absolutely agree with your concerns that, if people are not registered in the first place, it is very difficult to make an impact.

Can I take you back to before the pandemic? I do not know whether it was you or one of the other witnesses who, in their evidence to the committee, suggested that

“Prior to the pandemic, persistent inequalities in child oral health were recognised as an ongoing challenge for the programme.”

Why was that the case, given the effective community infrastructure that you have described? Was childsmile in need of reform? Did the pandemic expose its weaknesses?

Has it got back to the level at which it was prior to the pandemic?

That strikes me as a rather long answer to say that, until we resolve the existing problems, any question of abolishing charges is probably for the birds.

I see that Adelle McElrath is nodding. Would you like to add anything to that?

Can you tell us how the childsmile programme was impacted at the community and clinical levels? Professor Conway, I think that that is a question for you.

I am very proud of the childsmile programme. It was put in place by the previous Labour Government and has subsequently been continued by the SNP Government. It has transcended political parties as an excellent programme.

If we are not operating at the same level that we were before, what does the recovery programme for childsmile specifically look like?

I do not know whether anybody has anything to add.

Let me clarify that I am talking not about the needs of individual patients but about preventative measures that we know have an impact on the population. Let me illustrate my question in a different way. We know that there is growing inequality between the number of children and young people who are registered with dentists and the number who actually participate in treatment at their local dental surgery. Prior to the pandemic, in 2010, the figure for the gap between the least and most well-off areas was 7 per cent; it is now 20 per cent, which represents huge inequality in respect of attendance levels. Do you get involved in monitoring that or trying to adjust it?

I see that you are shaking your head.

Okay. Can I just sense check that with the witnesses from the two other boards? I take it that you are in agreement with what the witness from Shetland has said? Yes—I am seeing nods. Thank you.

I have a final question. The Scottish Government has committed to abolishing all dental charges. Given the challenges that you have outlined—such as dentists leaving the NHS, there not being enough staff and people making lifestyle changes—and given that the service is not operating at the level that it was previously, how feasible is that approach? How much extra resource would be required? I put that first to our witness from Tayside.