Lord Toby Harris, Chair, General Dental Council (GDC), speaking at the Dental Leadership Network, Tuesday 17 June 2025

The GDC’s Chair, Lord Toby Harris, today spoke at the Dental Leadership Network, 17 June 2025 (not checked against delivery).

Thank you to the Dental Leadership Network for inviting me to close today’s proceedings. This is the fourth time I have spoken here. But this will be my last time as my appointment as Chair of the GDC comes to an end in September. But before I come onto that, I want to thank all of today’s speakers, panellists and participants.

Although because of other business I missed some of the discussion, it is clear that the agenda has been very topical and thought-provoking with a wide range of speakers from across the dental team and from different areas of dentistry.  That diversity of input is good to see. And I am clear that the Dental Leadership Network has been important in bringing together ideas and information from across the sector.  And I know has been valued and well received.  Thank you all for making that possible.

Today’s theme of ‘The future is here; are we ready?’ perfectly sums up the fact that dentistry and the context for both patients and professionals has changed substantially in recent years and is likely to continue to do so. This has led me to reflect on my four years at the GDC and has tempted me into sharing some of my thoughts for the future.

When my term of office started at the GDC in October 2021, recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic was still underway. My interviews for the role were conducted via Teams and half the members of the Council had never physically met any of the others.  But if that felt strange, what was it like for patients and the public seeking to access dental services? Frankly, it was difficult and certainly less than ideal. Indeed, subsequent research has showed that oral health inequalities grew during that time.

We knew that dental professionals had had a very challenging time and the sector was clearly under great pressure from that experience.  But in addition there was an underlying and worsening position on the availability and access to NHS dentistry.

One of the first things I did was to acknowledge that this was a very difficult period for many dental professionals. I also set out to work collaboratively with colleagues from across the professions to ensure that our approach to regulation would be proportionate and focused on the important areas of public safety, to ensure public confidence in the professions we regulate.

Meeting stakeholders to hear concerns and priorities was invaluable – as it continues to be today. According to my diary, I’ve had around 100 meetings with stakeholders, which feels like a good number. Each has been worthwhile – whether we agree or disagree – just listening to each other’s priorities has huge value.

I also recall that one of my first outings as Chair was to join the BADN’s celebrations of 80 years as a professional association – I even made it onto the front cover of their journal.

I was also honoured to be asked to speak at the launch of the College of General Dentistry – it is hard to believe that the College formed less than four years ago. And now they have recently been given the Grant of Arms, which includes their motto sanitate oris venit fortitude (“Strength through oral health”).

In the last four years, I have been pleased to see:

• The GDC play its part in the dental workforce debate, by gathering, analysing and sharing working patterns data from all dental professionals.
• The GDC modernising and improving the framework of learning outcomes for education for all dental professionals.
• Revising the curricula for specialty education, and improved the process for assessing applications to the specialist lists
• The GDC has also made changes to the fitness to practise process, such as the introduction of a new approach to initial inquiries, enabling more rapid closure of cases which do not require further investigation.
• In addition, the capacity of the Overseas Registration Examination has been significantly expanded (although I recognise that many will say not by enough).  The GDC has also and provided candidates with refugee status access to priority booking for the ORE (something which was first raised with me at an early meeting of this Network). As everyone here knows, procurement is also underway to award new contracts in the autumn.
• I am also pleased that there is now a better understanding of the impact of fitness to practise on the mental health and wellbeing of dental professionals – and the GDC is committed to address this and also address the causes of fear, in the years ahead.

My view on joining the GDC was that professional regulation is a privilege rather than a burden and should be a benefit to professionals themselves. It protects patients from bad practice and, by addressing fitness to practise concerns and ensuring standards of education and practice, underpins the reputation of the profession as a whole.

I am still of this view, and I am therefore very pleased that in our proposed strategy our mission is:

“Through trusted and effective regulation, support dental professionals to provide the right care for their patients.”

This will underpin our vision of “Good oral health for all” – which I am certain is something that we can all agree on.

The famous physicist, Niels Bohr, once said “All prediction is uncertain, particularly prediction about the future.”  Nevertheless, I want to look ahead – even though this may be fraught with danger – particularly so in dentistry where many things move so quickly – although unfortunately some move much more slowly than we would like.

Our Corporate Strategy looks ahead over the next three to five years and our proposals are quite clear: we want to modernise our approach to regulation over that time.

The GDC’s public protection role – of course – remains the same.  However, the GDC intends to think more broadly about what that means in the context of such challenges as the access to NHS dentistry and the growing oral health inequalities.

The GDC cannot realise the vision of good oral health for all on its own.  However, we can play a key role in creating the environment in which there are more dental professionals equipped to deliver the care that people need.

I arrived just as the GDC Council was making financial decisions about our budget and the Annual Retention Fee (ARF) for 2022. This October, the incoming Chair will join Council in making final decisions on our Corporate Strategy for the next three years, which will in turn shape the ARF for 2026 and beyond.

That is a big decision to be part of in your first month as Chair. Of course, they will then go on to Chair more than twenty other Council meetings in the following four years. And, if they continue what I have been doing, possibly write more than 40 blog posts and I set them a target now of attracting more than 28,000 page views.

But, at this point, there is no need for me to provide advice – let alone set targets – for the incoming Chair. I am pleased to say that there has been a rigorous recruitment process which has now identified the right candidate for the role – from a very competitive field.  The recommendation has now gone forward for consideration by the Privy Council and the name of the successful candidate will be announced in due course.

I will be encouraging that person to continue to listen, to prioritise time to meet stakeholders and dental professionals, and to understand the sector and how we all need to play our part in tackling the challenges faced by dentistry.

I have found the last four years to be enormously worthwhile, and I am grateful to everyone who has spent time with me, shared their feedback and occasionally listened to my thoughts as well. I am honoured to have spent time in dental regulation and I repeat my thanks to everyone in this room and more generally to dental professionals everywhere. It is your hard work and dedication that will enable us to deliver good oral health for all.