I am writing to confirm that I have now completed my search for the information which you requested.

Request

I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the Urgent Dental Care (UDC) contract held by Darwenside Dental, Darwen.

1. Does the UDC contract for Darwenside Dental include payments per patient seen, per booked slot, or any other form of remuneration?

2. If payments are made, could you provide details of how these payments are structured (e.g., per patient or per slot) and any relevant rates?

3. If no payments are made for this UDC contract, could you clarify the reasoning behind this and whether it is in place solely to prevent clawback?

4. Are there any specific agreements or clauses in the UDC contract that affect the payment terms for Darwenside Dental?

Please provide the information in electronic format.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 8 October 2024.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds some the information you have requested and a copy of the information and notes to explain it has been attached.

Questions 1 & 2

1. Does the UDC contract for Darwenside Dental include payments per patient seen, per booked slot, or any other form of remuneration?

Dental Contracts are paid based on their achievement of a target set by their local Integrated Care Board (ICB) and not per patient seen/appointment booked.

1. If payments are made, could you provide details of how these payments are structured (e.g., per patient or per slot) and any relevant rates?

Payments are made each month to the contract of 1/12 of the Units of Dental Activity (UDA) Financial Value.

Please see the attached information for the performance target and financial value for Darwenside Limited. Guidance notes for this information are provided below.

Guidance Notes

This report contains the details from FP17s processed for the period stated 2024/2025 in contracts 6535430001 & 6535430002. The information within the report includes the data items and descriptions listed below.

Contract Number: This is a unique 10 character number which identifies a contract.

Commissioner Code: This is the three character code associated with the Commissioning Organisation. This a generic term used to denote health bodies, either Area Teams in England or Health Boards in Wales. Also known as Primary Care Organisations (PCOs)

Commissioner Name: This is the name associated with the Commissioning Organisation. This is a generic term used to denote health bodies, either Area Teams in England or Health Boards in Wales. Also known as Primary Care Organisations (PCOs)

Provider Name: This is the name of the Provider of the contract.

Financial Year: The financial year associated with the 'Year Month' dimension in the format 'YYYY/YYYY' e.g. 2018/2019 for 201804.

UDA Performance Target: The contracted units of dental activity to be achieved for the year, as entered on CoMPASS by the PCO.

UDA Financial Value: The financial value associated with the UDA performance target for the financial year, as entered on CoMPASS by the PCO.

Questions 3 & 4

1. If no payments are made for this UDC contract, could you clarify the reasoning behind this and whether it is in place solely to prevent clawback?

2. Are there any specific agreements or clauses in the UDC contract that affect the payment terms for Darwenside Dental?

I have established that the information requested is not held by the NHSBSA. This information may be available from the relevant commissioning organisation. Please find the below the contact details for Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB, who are the commissioning organisation for Darwenside Limited’s contracts..

https://www.lancashireandsouthcumbria.icb.nhs.uk/contact-us

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-02292

Your personal details will be removed from the published response.

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.