The way forward on specialist list assessed applications (SLAA)

As well as keeping registers of all dentists and dental care professionals who are entitled to practise in the UK, we also hold lists of registered dentists who are entitled to use one of the 13 specialist titles recognised by the GDC. These titles are designed to protect the public against inaccurate claims of specialist skills and to help employers and others recognise dentists with specialist skills and experience.  

Joining the specialist lists 

Alongside the SACs and Deans of the Royal Colleges, we’ve continued to look at ways of improving the assessment process to ensure that it supports the efficient and effective assessment of applications and has the capacity to manage the volume of applications in each of the specialty areas. In the current system, there is no direct contact between the GDC and those undertaking the assessments within the SACs, which can result in a disjointed user experience and makes the overall process more complicated than it needs to be.  Where applications are turned down, there is a right of appeal against the decision and we also need to address concerns about how that process works. 

All of that will take some further time to put in place, but we currently expect to be able to restart the assessment of applications by the end of June this year, at which point we can begin to address the current backlog of applications.