Join the GDC’s Council, and look out for proposals on guidance and standards

Last month, I said we were starting 2023 as we mean to go on, by bringing forward proposals from the Corporate Strategy 2023-2025 which Council agreed last October. Two of these consultations have now closed and we’re about to bring forward the next.

The GDC has engaged with stakeholders and dental professionals for some time about how we can provide the dental team with the guidance needed to make informed, professional judgements relevant to the situations faced in practice.

We’ve developed a series of consultations to propose new guidance that intends to consider the regulatory framework required for dental professionals to use their professional judgement to achieve the best outcomes for their patients.

The first of these consultations is a review of the Scope of Practice, due to be published in February. The changes aim to provide dental professionals with clear boundaries around their role while also enabling professionals who are trained, competent and indemnified to expand their scope of practice within those boundaries safely and effectively.

The second and third consultations, due in March, aim to provide more clarity about the regulatory requirements for indemnity and the information about changes in circumstances that dental professionals need to report to the GDC, which may be relevant to their fitness to practise.

The next part of this work later in the year will be broader, exploring what framework dental professionals need to exercise their professional judgement more flexibly than is described in the current Standards for the Dental Team, while ensuring that patient safety and public confidence remain the priority. This will test and gather insights on what would be effective and feasible, and Council will then make further decisions on this before any proposals are brought forward.

As ever, I encourage you to give your feedback when the proposals are shared. I’ll certainly be talking about them when I meet stakeholders.

If you want to get more involved in the regulation of the dental team then you have until 17 February to apply for one of two posts for dental professionals to become members of Council. One role requires experience of traditional non-executive experience such as financial monitoring, organisational reporting and risk management. The second role has a smaller time commitment and doesn’t require such experience, but instead a willingness to develop this within a regulatory environment, with support available to do so. We particularly welcome applications from dental care professionals.