Draft guidance on the principles of management responsibility

One of the changes to the Dentists Act which came into force in July 2006 was to open up ‘the business of dentistry’ to dental care professionals as well as dentists. This means that all members of the registered dental team can now receive payment for dental treatment, own dental practices and dental laboratories and employ other members of the dental team.

Another of the changes to the Act was to remove the limit on the number of ‘dental bodies corporate’ (DBCs) which can exist, meaning that any dental practice or group of practices can now become a corporate body.

In the light of these changes, the Council felt that it would be helpful to give guidance to registrants about their responsibilities when acting in a business capacity. The original intention was to produce guidance for registrants who are directors of DBCs. However, the principles apply to any registrant who has a management role, whether that is in a DBC, a Primary Care Trust, a practice, a dental laboratory or elsewhere and the guidance has been widened to reflect that.

We would welcome your comments on the attached draft guidance, including:

• Whether you agree with the principles set out;
• Whether you think that there is anything that should be added; and
• Whether you think that there is anything that should not be included.

Download the consultation document:

 Draft guidance on principles of management responsibilites as a PDF document

The deadline for response is 5.00pm on Friday 14 September 2007.

Please reply to:

Claire Gulliver
General Dental Council
44 Baker Street
London
W1U 7BE

Or send your comments by email to cgulliver@gdc-uk.org

We look forward to hearing from you.