Request

I would like to submit a Freedom of Information request to understand the level of early UDA repayments agreed between NHSE and the holders of dental services contracts, as well as information on contract rebasing.

By UDA I am referring to Units of Dental Activity (UDAs), the way of measuring a dental practice's activity and the amount of patients' charges that are collected.

I have attached an excel spreadsheet to aid in collecting the data that I have requested. I would be grateful if you could use it as a template for your response. If possible, please provide separate data per ICB covered by your team. Otherwise, please provide data for England in total.

Please provide the requested information for the financial years ending March 2019, March 2020, March 2023, March 2024. If the number of periods requested is a barrier to providing the information, please provide data for years ending March 2023 and March 2024 (i.e. the last 2 years).

Please provide the following for each of these periods:

Mid-year repayments

1. Contracts eligible for mid-year repayments

• The number of contracts which are potentially eligible for mid-year repayments to be made (i.e. contracts where <30% of annual contracted UDAs have been delivered by 30 September, and therefore for which an action plan is requested) • The total annual value (£) of these contracts which are potentially eligible for mid-year repayments • The total value (£) of the amount that is potentially eligible to be reclaimed through mid-year repayments (i.e. the estimated value of the UDAs that would not be delivered based on activity levels)

1. Mid-year repayments enforced

• The number of contracts which are eligible for mid-year repayments and for which the action plan has been rejected by the ICB, and therefore early repayments are enforced (i.e. withholding contract payments during the latter part of the financial year) • The total annual value (£) of the contracts eligible for mid-year repayments for which no action plan has been accepted and for which early-repayments are enforced • The total value (£) of the amount that could be eligible to be reclaimed through mid-year repayments, for the contracts for which the action plan has been rejected • The total value (£) of the mid-year repayments that have been enforced / collected for contracts for which the action plan has been rejected (nb. if there is no difference between the value in 2c and 2d, please still include both)

End of year contract re-basing

1. Contract rebasing

• The number of contracts which have been re-based (i.e. the number of UDAs changed) after the 96% UDA delivery target has not been reached for a period of 3 consecutive years • The number of contracts which have been re-based unilaterally (i.e. enforced by the ICB, rather than through mutual agreement with the provider) • Please refer to the attached excel spreadsheet which lays out this request in a clear format.

On 8 October 2024 you clarified the following:

Question 1 -Can you confirm what is meant by repayments? We do not request repayments at the point of Mid-Year. Is this referring to withholds? Yes - I mean withholds

Question 2 - The early repayment scheme is not enforced and is an option which is offered to providers following ICB agreement. Could you clarify what is being requested in this section? I am looking to understand if there is ever a case where the commissioner unilaterally enforces mid-year early repayment for contractors who do not meet the mid year target. If this is never the case, please can you include the value of repayments that were made under agreement with the ICB?

Question 3 - We would not hold any of this information. Rebasing contracts is information which would be held by the Commissioner. Ok - understood!

Response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds some of the information you have requested and a copy of the information is attached.

Questions 1 & 2

A copy of the information is attached

Question 3

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. Information on Rebasing contracts would be held by the Commissioner.

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

The 'Data' tab includes information about the Mid-Year review exercise carried administered by Provider Assurance in the 2019/20, 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years.

We're unable to provide information on 2018/19 as 2019/20 was the first Mid-Year exercise administered by Provider Assurance.

Delivery data, Total amount withheld and Potential Maximum Withhold amounts taken from or calculated using the data taken from data updates provided to ICBs on the following dates:

2019/20 - 4 June 2020 2022/23 - 1 June 2023 2023/24 - 26 March 2024

Total Contract Value per year taken from Eden/Compass.

Total amount withheld for MY 2324 was taken from data in our contract management system.

The Definition column of the table below states which data will be included for each of the headings in the "Data" tab.

Category (Cat) definitions

Cat 1 contracts – NHSBSA is responsible for annual reconciliation of these contracts where details recorded in Compass are up to date and accurate.

Cat 2 contracts – NHSBSA is responsible for annual reconciliation of these contracts where the commissioner has supplied additional information to NHSBSA.

Cat 3 contracts – commissioner is responsible for the annual reconciliation of these contracts and confirming delivery position. NHSBSA is responsible for checking annual reconciliation has taken place.

Cat 4 Dental Contract Reform (DCR) contracts - NHSBSA was responsible for annual reconciliation of these contracts in 2022/23 financial year where the commissioner has supplied additional information to NHSBSA.

Data dictionary - see attached

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data. Publishing this response

Please note that this information will be published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02280

Your personal details will be removed from the published response.

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data. Reusing the data and copyright

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. 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: “NHSBSA Copyright 2024” 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.