Request

I am looking to make a second freedom of information request today for the purpose of academic research. The information I seek relates to NHS dental activity data. Please find attached an Excel spreadsheet that lays out the information that I seek. Please also see this below as a list.

Time period

For each financial year since FY 2011/12 until the most recently completed financial year of 2022/3

Geographical areas

For each lower tier local authority (i.e. the 317 single tier local authorities)

Data

In each local authority and in each financial year, I seek:

• the total number of UNIQUE 0 year old patients presenting for NHS primary care

• the total number of UNIQUE 1-17-year-old patients presenting for NHS primary care

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

Guidance Notes:

This report contains the details from FP17s processed in the Reporting Years 2014/2015 - 2022/2023, for Patients resident in English & Welsh Local Authorities. The information within the report includes the data items and descriptions listed below. Foundation Dentist activity included.

Reporting Year: The financial year which the activity relates to. Year-end methodology will include all activity data (including amendments) collected from FP17s scheduled in any of the fifteen schedule months from April to June, where the date of completion is on or between 1 April and 31 March of the year. For example 2019-20 will include all activity data (including amendments) collected from FP17s scheduled in any of the fifteen schedule months from April 2019 to June 2020, where the date of completion is on or between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020. Where FP17s do not have a date of completion, e.g. where the patient has failed to return to complete the treatment, the date of acceptance is used.

Patient Local Authority Name: The local authority name in which the patient is resident, irrespective of where treatment took place. Based on the home postcode recorded in the personal details section of each FP17 submitted, therefore is dependent on this information being included and accurate in the records. This is not dependent on where the patient received treatment, so can either be in or outside the PCO.

Unique Patient Count: This is a count of the unique patient identities on forms scheduled. A patient may have attended more than once in the time period and received different treatment, so the total figure has been adjusted for duplicate patient IDs. Patient identities are counted for all valid FP17 transactions – including amendment, deletion and withdrawn records. Therefore, it is possible for the count of patient identities to be greater than the count of FP17s.

Unique Patient Count (Aged X-X): A measure, which describes the Unique Patient Count for patients Aged X-X at date of acceptance.

Note: We only hold data back to 2014/15 and 2022/23 is incomplete as technically contractors have util June 2023 to submit forms for treatment provided between 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023 Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01096

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing, the data please contact nhsbsa.foirequests@nhs.net ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact nhsbsa.communicationsteam@nhs.net. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “Dental Services, NHSBSA Copyright 2023” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated.

Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.