eGDCConsultations and responses
Consultation outcomes
Our strategic plan for the next three years: Consultation outcome report
Preliminary meeting guidance: Consultation outcome report
Shaping the direction of lifelong learning for dental professionals
We’ve published the outcome report to our discussion document on shaping the direction of lifelong learning for dental professionals.
Thank you to all who provided us their views and insights.
We’ll continue to engage all relevant parties before any changes are made to the CDP scheme.
Changes to the timescales for the Rule 4 process: Consultation outcome report
Principles of Specialist listings: Consultation outcome report
GDC corporate strategy 2020–2022: Consultation outcome report
In May 2019, the General Dental Council (GDC) published a consultation on its proposed strategy for 2020-2022. The strategy described the organisation’s vision, values and strategic aims, and provided high-level information on the expenditure plans to support the achievement of those aims over the period.
Consulting on the new strategy marks a change in approach for the GDC. This new approach is set out in the GDC’s fee setting policy, which was consulted on in 2018, and came into effect from January 2019. It explains that we will consult every three years on the high-level objectives and associated expenditure plans that will underpin the annual retention fee (ARF).
The draft strategy set out five strategic aims, which were developed to describe the GDC’s priorities within its statutory remit. In order to deliver the necessary outcomes, the strategy also identified objectives designed to support the achievement of those aims.
The consultation, which opened on 8 May 2019 and closed on 30 July 2019, invited views on the objectives we had identified to support the achievement of the strategic aims, as well as the expenditure plans associated with them.
GDC corporate strategy 2020–2022: Consultation outcome report
Education processes: Consultation outcome report
Clear and certain: A new framework for fee-setting: Consultation outcome report
GDC responses to consultations
Response to the Department of Health (Northern Ireland) consultation on raising a concern in the public interest (whistleblowing) framework and model policy
Response to the DHSC consultation on water fluoridation consultation process
Our response to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) consultation entitled Water fluoridation: seeking views on future consultation process.
Consultation details can be found on the GOV.UK website.
The consultation closed on 3 June 2022.
Response to the DHSC consultation on changes to the GDC and the NMC's international registration legislation
Our response to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) consultation on changes to the General Dental Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s international registration legislation.
Consultation details can be found on the GOV.UK website.
The consultation closed on 6 May 2022.
Response to the DHSC consultation on making vaccination a condition of deployment in the health and wider social care sector
The GDC’s response to the DHSC consultation on whether to mandate vaccinations against COVID-19 and influenza as a condition of deployment to Care Quality Commission registered health and care settings in England.
The consultation closed on 22 October 2021.
Response to the Department of Health’s consultation on a statutory duty of candour in Northern Ireland
The consultation will close on 31 August 2021.
Response to the Department of Health and Social Care's consultation: Regulating healthcare professionals, protecting the public
Read the GDC's full response to government proposals to reform the legislation under which we operate.
We very much support the ambition set out to remove outdated and overly prescriptive legislation, and to put in its place a modernised and flexible framework that can respond to change and innovation while enhancing accountability, transparency and public protection. But we think the proposals need to go further, and faster, as our Chair of Council, William Moyes, has set out.
Response to the NHS Digital consultation on changes to data on written complaints in the NHS
The GDC’s response to the NHS Digital consultation on changes to data on written complaints in the NHS.
The consultation closed on 26 March 2021.
Response to the Professional Standards Authority consultation on the approach to the performance review process
The GDC’s response to the Professional Standards Authority consultation on the approach to the performance review process.
The consultation closed on 4 March 2021
Response to the Welsh Government consultation on the Welsh Language Standards (Healthcare Regulators) Regulations
The GDC’s response to the Welsh Government consultation on the Welsh Language Standards (Healthcare Regulators) Regulations.
The consultation closed on 2 October 2020.
Response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman consultation on the Complaint Standards Framework
The GDC’s consultation response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman consultation on the Complaint Standards Framework.
The consultation closed on 18 September 2020.
Response to the Professional Standards Authority consultation on virtual fitness to practise hearings
The GDC’s response to the Professional Standards Authority consultation on virtual fitness to practise hearings.
The consultation closed on 11 September 2020.
Response to the Scottish Government consultation on Near Me video consulting service
The GDC’s response to the Scottish Government consultation on Near Me video consulting service.
The consultation closed on 8 August 2020.
Closed consultations
Consultation on revisions to Guidance for the Interim Orders Committee and the Interim Orders Committee Conditions Bank
Start date
10 November 2022
End date
2 February 2023
Summary
We are seeking views on revisions to the Guidance for the Interim Orders Committee and the Interim Orders Committee Conditions Bank (and supporting documents). We’re proposing updates that promote patient safety and public confidence, while ensuring decisions are fair and proportionate. Our goal is to make improvements to our fitness to practise processes where we can within our legislative constraints, and deliver on our commitment to right touch regulation.
The Interim Orders Committee is responsible for considering and controlling any immediate and serious risks to patient safety and public confidence. It does this through assessing risk, and deciding whether there is a need to suspend or impose interim conditions on a dental professional’s practice ahead of any substantive fitness to practise hearing.
Of the 152 cases presented to the Interim Orders Committee in 2021:
- 60 did not pose an immediate or serious risk (no order imposed)
- interim conditions on a dental professional’s practice were put in place in 41 cases
- and 51 interim suspensions of practice were imposed.
The Interim Orders Committee can consider a case at any stage of an investigation. Cases are referred to it as soon as any potential serious or immediate risk to patient safety or public confidence has been identified for an assessment. Interim orders can be imposed on a dental professional’s practice for up to 18 months, and are reviewed every six months.
The changes we’re proposing will affect those who are subject to an Interim Orders Committee hearing in future, lawyers and advisers who represent dental professionals, and independent fitness to practise panellists.
The review aims to deliver the following objectives:
- Ensure consistency in our approach to immediate risk.
- Improve transparency of interim order rules, considerations and decisions.
- Ensure decisions are proportionate and appropriate to the risks posed.
- Provide comprehensive guidance to panellists.
Proposed improvements include:
- Giving additional guidance on ongoing criminal proceedings, such as the types of cases that are likely to be particularly damaging to public confidence, and consideration of sentencing in the case of a criminal conviction.
- Providing further detail on the considerations for panellists, and additional weight to the seriousness of sexual assault, harassment and violence.
- Adding new guidance on joint hearings where there are multiple registrants.
- Providing further detail on considerations for the handling of cases where there is an existing restriction on a dental professional’s practice in place.
- Adding reference to the mode of hearing, including remote hearings and conducting interim order reviews by correspondence where the registrant does not attend.
- Giving details of the approach and weight to be given to testimonial evidence.
We have drawn on relevant published evidence and case law when updating our guidance, including findings from the cross-regulatory research exploring the concept of seriousness in fitness to practise . Our research findings are particularly relevant to cases where there are allegations of serious misconduct.
Consultation documents
We are seeking your views
on the following draft documents (consultation closed, unpublished):
Interim Orders Committee Guidance
Interim Orders Committee Conditions Bank
Glossary of Terms
Equality Impact Assessment
Respond
This consultation is closed.
Responding to your views
We will respond to views raised during the consultation by producing a consultation outcome report. The report will be published on our consultations and responses page when available.
If you have any questions or queries about this consultation, please contact us.
The Safe Practitioner: A framework of behaviours and outcomes for dental professional education
Start date
18 October 2022
End date
10 January 2023
Background
The GDC has a general concern to promote high standards of education, in all aspects of dentistry, and a statutory role in assuring the standard of pre-registration education and training. Our expectations for pre-registration training of dental professionals are articulated as learning outcomes in
Preparing for Practice, which was last updated in 2015. In the past several years, there have been significant shifts in society and in dentistry, which need to be considered to ensure people joining our register continue to have the right skills, knowledge and behaviours.
Summary
We have reviewed the current learning outcomes and are proposing the following:
1. Moving away from the terms ‘safe beginner’ and ‘independent practitioner’ to the term ‘safe practitioner’ to describe newly UK qualified dental professionals
• the resulting proposed Safe Practitioner Framework
This consultation is now closed.
Please find the frameworks which detail the learning outcomes and behaviours for each professional discipline below:
Our strategic plan for the next three years: your views
Start date
05/07/2022
End date
06/09/2022
Overview
We’ve set out our proposed plans for public protection for the next three years at a time of considerable uncertainty for UK dentistry. We want to focus on delivery of our core functions while making system improvements where we can, recognising that the timetable for reform is far from clear or certain.
We’d now like to hear your views on our strategic plans for the next three years.
Our plan provides a framework for managing the uncertainty we face, while furthering our ambition for a flexible and responsive regulatory framework that:
- maintains dental education and training standards
- supports the registration of those who meet our standards
- provides public protection if a dental professional falls short of expectations.
Our priority is to keep building effective prevention strategies and operating a proportionate system for resolving concerns to further our ambition to shift the balance from enforcement to prevention. We plan to embed new principles of professionalism, giving professionals the space to exercise their judgement, and to focus our investigations on issues that provoke concerns for public safety or confidence.
Our regulatory framework has not been fundamentally updated for four decades and its weakness is becoming increasingly apparent. Changes to the system for international registration will be prioritised when the legislation has been agreed but even then, the changes will take time to implement. We’ll work to ensure we are well prepared for the opportunity to modernise our framework, and will continue to press government to bring forward much needed reforms.
Legislative change will help but is still some way off. And there are other important issues for dentistry, including widening health inequalities and access to NHS dental services. Some issues are beyond our remit, but we can make an important contribution:
- by sharing intelligence and insights
- engaging stakeholders
- working with the right parts of the sector to address risks.
Some of the issues facing dentistry have been exposed or exacerbated by COVID-19. So our plans include considering relevant consequences of the pandemic, such as supporting those whose education and training has been disrupted, increasing capacity for investigations and adapting regulation to address emerging public safety or confidence concerns.
As the UK regulator for dental professionals our plans affect regulated professionals working in the sector, people thinking about a career in dentistry, and the public who rely on safe and trusted dental and oral health services. Our work is primarily funded through fees paid by dental professionals and forecasts for budgets and fees are included in our strategic plans issued for consultation.
We expect a modest increase in fees from the levels set in 2019. Estimated fees have been articulated at levels that are fair and that ensure we are a financially sustainable regulator. Inflationary risks are affecting everyone in the UK and our expenditure plans have been formulated with this in mind. We have also set out how we plan to manage risks from high and volatile inflation during the planning period.
Our consultation provides dental professionals and other stakeholders with an opportunity to help shape our strategic and expenditure plans for the next three years. We invite all those with an interest in how dental professionals are regulated to share their views.
This consultation is now closed.
Revisions to the GDC’s Preliminary Meeting Guidance
Start date
27 January 2021
End date
21 February 2021
Background
A consultation on proposed updates to GDC Guidance on the constitution and conduct of Preliminary Meetings, convened as part of the Fitness to Practise process. Changes to the Guidance will affect those involved in our Fitness to Practise processes, particularly in cases where the investigation has resulted in a referral to a substantive hearing.
Summary
The key changes from the previously issued guidance include:
- greater detail to assist parties in their approach to attending a Preliminary Meeting
- inclusion of matters relating to consideration of the format of hearings (remote or in person)
- matters relating to evidence, special measures, disclosure of material, and admissibility of hearsay evidence.
We have also proposed adjustments to help ensure Preliminary Meetings and, any directions given, are able to narrow or refine issues ahead of a hearing taking place. The current need to hold all or most hearings activity (including Preliminary Meetings) remotely has also prompted an update of this guidance. The changes should ensure that all parties have clear guidance on the issues that might arise and the types of information that may assist resolution of matters at a Preliminary Meeting.
Shaping the direction of lifelong learning for dental professionals
Start date
11 July 2019
End date
3 October 2019
Background
This discussion document presents ideas for the future development of lifelong learning and builds on previously published proposals included in Shifting the balance. The ideas for discussion draw on our Review of the literature on CPD, January 2019, and engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, at two workshops, held in April 2019.
Summary
Can you help shape the direction of lifelong learning for dental professionals?
We have opened a conversation about how dental professionals can take increasing ownership of meeting and maintaining high professional standards and quality patient care. This discussion document invites ideas, comments and views on the future development of lifelong learning, or continuing professional development, in dentistry.
The aim is to ensure that lifelong learning in dentistry continues to evolve to meet the expectations of the public, patients and dental professionals, in a way that is proportionate to risk, and flexible on how professionals go about reaching their development goals.
The discussion document is presented in three parts:
- Part 1: A future model for lifelong learning
- Part 2: CPD practices
- Part 3: Informing CPD choices.
This consultation is now closed.
The deadline for responses is 3 October. Please provide your response using the online survey. You do not need to complete the survey all at once, to save and complete at another time, please select the 'finish later' option and follow the instructions.
Changes to the timescales for the Rule 4 process
Start Date
07/07/19
End Date
07/09/19
Background
A consultation on a proposed pilot of changes to timescales for the Rule 4 process, part of the overall Fitness to Practise process, which include providing registrants and their representatives, under certain circumstances, the opportunity to request to extend the period for the preparation of their observations at the Rule 4 stage, to ensure the best possible evidence can be provided.
Summary
Respond
This consultation is now closed.
You can read the proposed corporate strategy by downloading the PDF from this page.
Please respond to this consultation using the online survey.
Corporate Strategy 2020-2022: Working with the dental team for public safety and confidence
Start Date
08/05/2019
End Date
30/07/2019
Background
Summary
- To operate a regulatory system which protects patients and is fair to registrants, while being cost-effective and proportionate; which begins with education, supports career-long learning, promotes high standards of care and professional conduct and is developed in the light of emerging evidence and experience.
- To work with the professions and our partners to ensure that patients and the public are able to raise concerns with the agency best placed to resolve them effectively and without unnecessary delay.
- To use evidence, research and evaluation, to develop, deliver and embed a cost-effective and right-touch model for enforcement action.
- To maintain and develop the regulatory framework.
- To continue to develop an outcome-focused, high-performing and sustainable organisation.
Outcome report
This consultation has now closed.
You will find a summary of views and our responses in the Corporate Strategy 2020-2022 Outcome Report.
GDC Corporate Strategy 2020-2022
Consultation on the principles of specialist listing
Start Date
31/01/2019
End Date
25/04/2019
Summary
This consultation invites comment on fundamental issues related to the system of specialist listing:
- revised purposes for specialist listing, setting out what the GDC expects listed specialties to fulfil, and criteria by which the GDC will determine which disciplines of dentistry should be listed
- principles for the addition and removal of specialist lists
- processes for maintaining accreditation on specialist lists.
If adopted by the GDC, following consultation, the revised principles and criteria would form the basis for the GDC to make policy decisions on specialist listing in the future.
This consultation is now closed.