Request

I would like a dataset equivalent to the published English Contractor Monthly General Dental Activity, but with an additional field for the UDAs provided by dental therapists under Direct Access. I understand that in October 2022 the FP17 was adapted to include the GDC number of the performer, which should allow identification of these courses of treatment. If the monthly figures cannot be provided, annualised figures would be OK but need to be able to see the therapist data at a provider level and compare with their overall activity.

It would also be helpful to have a summary table showing the number of dental therapists submitting claims and the total UDAs per year in a similar format to the published Dental activity delivered by Foundation Dentists in England 2016/17 to 2021/22

On 16 May 2025 you clarified your request with the following:

I would like a dataset equivalent to the published English Contractor Monthly General Dental Activity, but with an additional field for the UDAs provided by dental therapists under Direct Access. I understand that in October 2022 the FP17 was adapted to include the GDC number of the performer which should allow identification of these courses of treatment. If the monthly figures cannot be provided, annualised figures would be OK but need to be able to see the therapist data at a provider level and compare with their overall activity.

October 2022 – April 2025

It would also be helpful to have a summary table showing the number of dental therapists submitting claims and the total UDAs per year in a similar format to the published Dental activity delivered by Foundation Dentists in England 2016/17 to 2021/22

2016/17 to 2012/22

On 19 May 2025 you further clarified your request with the following:

The second part of the request should read 2016/17 to 2024/25, not 2016/17 to 2021/22

Response

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

Unfortunately, due to Data Retention, only data from 2018/2019 is accessible.

Guidance Notes

This report contains the details from General FP17s processed in English contracts from 2018/2019 to 2024/2025 (202404-202504). The information within the report includes the data items and descriptions listed below.

Treatment Month: A course of treatment is assigned to a treatment month based on the date of completion or date of last visit (the date of last visit may be the treatment acceptance date).

Country Name: This is the country that the contract is located in. (PCOs)

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

Commissioner Code: This is the 3-character code 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).

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: The name of the provider

Total FP17s: This is a count of the number of FP17s scheduled including adjustments for amended and deleted FP17s. Withdrawn FP17s are not included in the total count of FP17s. This figure may be zero or negative if deleted FP17s have been processed.

UDA Delivered: The units of dental activity scheduled for the time period selected relating to the financial year, where they were carried out by any performer.

DCP Therapist Direct Treatment FP17s: This is a count of the number of FP17s scheduled performed with Direct Treatment by a DCP Therapist.

Treatment Charge Band: The patient charge band associated with a course of treatment as stated in Part 5 Treatment Category of the FP17.

Late Submitted FP17: This is a count of the number of late submitted FP17s. Late is defined as FP17s where the treatment was completed and the time between receipt at NHS Dental Services and date of completion of treatment was greater than two months (62 days).

Note: The direct access claims would have started to come in from 1 April 2024.

Contract Start Date: The start date of the contract as recorded on CoMPASS.

Contract End Date: The end date of the contract, as recorded on CoMPASS (only where an end date has been entered on CoMPASS).

Reporting Year: The financial year which the activity/contracted services relate to.

Contract Type: Either GDS – General Dental Services, PDS – Personal Dental Services or PDS Plus – Personal Dental Services Plus.

Note 2: Due to Data Retention only data from 2018/2019 is accessible.

Principal Practice Address - Lines 1-6: This is address line 1 of the main address used for correspondence between the NHSBSA and the dental contract; it is not necessarily the address where treatment takes place. The Principal Practice and Correspondence address is calculated based upon a number of rules applied in sequence:

1. If there is only one treatment location recorded in CoMPASS, then this will be assigned as the PP&C address.

2. If at the 30th of the month there is only one live treatment location, then this will be assigned as the PP&C address.

3. If there are multiple open treatment locations for the contract, the treatment location with the earliest submission of FP17/O activity will be used.

4. If there are no open treatment locations at the 30th of the month, the historic principal practice address from POL will be used.

5. If there are no open treatment locations as of the 30th of the month, the address with the most FP17/O activity will be used.

6. If there are no open treatment locations, but one existed and had associated FP17/O activity when the contract was live, then this address will be used.

7. Contracts that have an end date before 01/04/2013 are assigned a address.

8. For a new contract where no treatment location addresses have been entered onto CoMPASS, they are assigned a blank address.

9. If there are no FP17/O records after April 2013, the location with the most FP17/Os with no time restrictions is used.

10. Contracts that have no FP17 records are assigned a blank address.

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.

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-02824

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:

“Dental Services, NHSBSA Copyright 2025” 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.