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Consultations and responses

On this page you can find details of any consultations that we are currently running, consultation outcomes and closed consultations from previous years.

You can read GDC responses to consultations by others here.

Open consultations

Overview

Developing our corporate strategy is the means by which we set the goals and medium-term objectives for the GDC and for the regulation of dental professionals. We review our strategy every three years to make sure that the GDC focuses its activities most appropriately to deliver its statutory objectives and adapts and responds to the changing environment in which dental healthcare is delivered in the UK.

Our strategy sets out our vision, mission and objectives, and describes the work we intend to do to achieve them. Some of this involves doing what we do now, but doing it better – with modernised systems and more user-friendly approaches. Other elements require us to think differently about how to achieve our desired outcomes, and particularly how we respond to developments and pressures in and on the sector and changes in patient needs and behaviours.

Our strategy is strengthened by scrutiny and input from all those with an interest in ensuring that professional regulation in dentistry is effective, that dentistry across the four nations of the UK continues to be delivered to a high standard and that patients can be confident in the quality of care they receive and in the professionalism of those who provide it. This consultation provides an opportunity to help shape our strategy for the next three years and we welcome and encourage responses to it.

Consultation opened

Opened on 29 May 2025.

Consultation closes

Deadline for responses is midnight 21 August 2025.

How to respond

Trusted and effective: a strategy for dental regulation 2026-2028

Please respond to this consultation by using the online form.

You can also submit your response by email, please include the name of the consultation in the subject line of your email to: [email protected]

If you would like to submit your response by post, please address it to:

GDC, Strategy Directorate, 37 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 8DQ

Responding to your views 

We will respond to views raised during the consultation by producing a consultation outcome report, which we will publish on our website.

How we will use your response

You can find out more about how we collect, store and process information in our Privacy Notice.

Consultation outcomes

We have published the outcome report following consultation on proposed amendments to the Specialist List Assessed Applications routes. 

We have also published revised application forms, guidance for assessors, coinciding with the updated regulations, which are effective from 1 January 2025. 

We have published the outcome report of our consultation on the Guidance on Reporting Matters to the GDC.

We have also published the guidance, which is effective from 1 February 2025. 

Thank you to all who responded to our consultation. We received much valuable feedback and suggestions for improvements, all of which has helped shape the finalised revised guidance.

We have published the outcome report to our consultation on updating the Guidance on Indemnity and Insurance. 

We have also published the updated guidance, which is effective from 12 February 2024. 

Thank you to all who responded to our consultation. We received much valuable feedback and suggestions for improvements, all of which has helped shape the finalised revised guidance.

You can find a summary of the responses we received to our consultation on our strategic plan for the next three years, and our response in our 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

 

Closed consultations

Consultation on a revised Scope of Practice guidance


Start Date 

16/02/23 

End Date 

11/05/23 

Background 

This consultation proposes revisions to the General Dental Council’s (GDC) Scope of Practice guidance.  

The GDC has been reviewing the Scope of Practice guidance and we are proposing an approach that better supports professional decision-making. We have been exploring the concept of professionalism, and how we can provide the dental team with the right level of guidance and the space needed to make informed judgements relevant to the situations they encounter in practice.  
 
The changes we propose in this consultation are part of a wider ambition to promote professional behaviours, skills, and attributes across dentistry. We continue to take steps to maintain and improve patient safety by moving dental regulation towards preventing harm rather than responding to the consequences of it. A key part of this move is to foster a system that supports and encourages professionalism and decision making that is centred on the best interests of patients.   
 
We have engaged with professionals and patients in the development of these proposals. This consultation is an opportunity to further engage and gather feedback that will help us to develop guidance that is fit for purpose in the context of modern dentistry and enables good patient care.  

Summary 

Our proposals are based on an extensive review of the Scope of Practice guidance which included independent research and stakeholder engagement, including with dental professionals, patients and the public, professional associations, indemnifiers and organisations involved in dental education. Much of the content for the proposed revised guidance was produced in partnership with stakeholders.  

To address the issues identified with the guidance during our review, which are detailed in the consultation linked below, the changes proposed to the Scope of Practice guidance aim to provide dental professionals with clear boundaries around their role while also enabling professionals who are trained, competent, and indemnified to safely expand their scope of practice within those boundaries.  
 
The proposed revised guidance also moves away from providing a list of tasks that could be undertaken by each professional group and instead provides criteria for decision making to support and guide professional judgement.  

Our revision to the guidance aims to make it: 

  • Centred on protecting patients – protects patients by guiding dental professionals to practise safely within clear boundaries of their role. 
  • Supportive and guiding – supports and guides professional decision-making. 
  • Enabling – enables the dental team and individuals to work to their full potential in a variety of different settings.  
  • Flexible – sets role boundaries while also adaptive to the ever-changing environment of dentistry.  
  • Futureproof – supports the delivery of dentistry of the future. 

Respond​ 

Please access the consultation paper online where you can save your responses to our questions and submit it when you are ready (but before the deadline).  
 
If you prefer, you can also download a copy of the consultation paper and submit your responses via email or through the post to: The GDC, 37 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 8DQ   


If you have any questions about this consultation, please email us.