A view from the Chair: Minister describes the increase in ORE capacity as a ‘real step forward’; understanding each other’s priorities; looking at professionalism more broadly

Since joining the GDC nine weeks ago, I have prioritised meeting a lot of our stakeholders and partners. I am grateful to everyone who has given up their time, and I’m using these valuable conversations to listen, learn and ask a lot of questions. Some of this is to help me to understand where the GDC and indeed regulation fits in dentistry.

It’s immediately apparent that dentistry is practiced in a complex system. From the different types of dental settings – NHS, private, community, primary and secondary care. And the types of dentistry performed – general dental practice, preventative care, specialty care. A crucial factor in this is dental workforce, including the breadth and scope of all seven professional titles in the dental team.

As Chair of an NHS Trust for nine years and now as Chair of NHS Professionals, I see the challenges of large-scale workforce planning, recruitment and retention. There are obvious parallels in dentistry – and some shared challenges too.

The increase in ORE capacity is a ‘real step forward’

We convened the tenth meeting of the 10th Dental Leadership Network in November, with the theme Act now, shape tomorrow: Strategic shifts in dental care. I was disappointed to miss the event as I was unwell.

The Minister for Health and Care, Stephen Kinnock MP, gave a speech setting out the government’s priorities for dentistry and acknowledging the work of dental professionals across the four nations. The Minister said that he was ‘delighted’ by our recent announcement about the new ORE contract, which we expect could more than double the number of dentists joining the register via the ORE route. He described the increase in capacity as ‘a real step forward’.

In the discussions about the dental workforce, we need to be acutely aware that plans need to consider the whole dental team – there is no dentistry without dental nurses chairside; dental technicians and laboratories play a vital role; dental hygienists and dental therapists have a wide scope of practice that we should make full use of.

It is clear that no single intervention will increase the NHS dental workforce nor add capacity in regions that are currently underserved. We need to work together to tackle this.

Understanding each other’s priorities

The complexity of the systems all points to the need to understand each other’s priorities and purpose, identify the shared challenges and how we can work together as partners to tackle the issues. We each have different roles – providing insight, sharing data, working within our own governance structures to take things forward.

The GDC recently published our strategy for 2026-2028. Our vision is to be a trusted and effective regulator, supporting dental professionals to provide safe and effective care for their patients.

We have set out our vision, values, objectives, the work we will do to achieve them and how we will measure and know that we’re making progress. It’s a different strategy, and very ambitious. This is our opportunity to make a positive difference to dental regulation that will be felt by dental professionals, partners, patients and the public.

To do this, we will champion a model of regulation that supports professionalism, enables learning, and resolves issues quickly and proportionately. I want us to provide regulation that fits the times we’re in and anticipates and prepares for the future. We want to be on top of emerging issues and able to play our part in tackling shared challenges.

I am committed to nurturing relationships built on trust and support and using these to listen and to learn so that we support dental professionals to provide safe and effective care for their patients and to feel the pride that they rightly should.

Looking at professionalism more broadly

Richard Susskind, an author and expert on the impact of AI on society, reminds us that the true heart of a profession is not its rituals or its regulations, but its enduring promise to put specialised knowledge to work in the service of others. Dentistry embodies that promise every single day. In a world that is increasingly automated, accelerated, and transactional, you remain one of the few last great face-to-face professions, where skill, compassion and judgement cannot be downloaded or outsourced.

Professionalism in dentistry isn’t just about meeting standards; it is about holding yourselves to a purpose. It is the quiet courage of doing the right thing for the patient in front of you, the commitment to continual learning, and the pride of belonging to a community that safeguards the nation’s oral health. This is what sets you apart — not just as clinicians, but as professionals in the truest sense of the word.

With rights, in this case to practise, come responsibilities and you should rightly be proud of the role you play in society – we at the GDC will play our part in supporting you in every way we can to deliver on your responsibilities.