eGDCGDC publishes its Annual Report and Accounts for 2023
We have today published our Annual Report and Accounts for 2023.
In 2023, our priorities around public protection remained our key focus at the start of the first year of our Corporate Strategy for 2023–2025. Many of the stresses in the sector continued, with our own research showing difficulties for patients in accessing dental care, particularly NHS dental services.
Discussions about the dental workforce continued to be a priority for the sector and we committed to collecting workforce pattern data to help to inform these discussions. The responses have helped us understand where dentists were working, what work they were doing, how many hours they were working and whether they were in NHS or private practice.
Supported by stakeholders, we invited dentists to voluntarily provide working pattern data as part of annual renewal and are doing the same for dental care professionals as part of their annual renewal process. We did this because having a better understanding of the dental workforce will provide the profession with valuable insights that can help support future workforce resource planning.
Other key developments in the reporting year included:
Changes brought together our Registration and Fitness to Practise functions under a new and single Regulation directorate. This has helped improve our resilience and efficiency and provide more flexibility and career development opportunities for staff.
We processed a record 11,476 applications, up from the previous high of 8,979 in 2015. In addition, processing times improved across most registration routes. However, a backlog of overseas dentist applications for dental hygienist or therapist registration remained, which we have continued to focus on throughout 2024.
We increased the number of caseworkers in late 2022 which helped speed up our fitness to practise processes. This contributed to a 31% reduction in the overall caseload at the end of 2023 compared in 2022.
Legislative changes that allowed us to consult on and make new rules governing our international registration processes.
- We developed an engagement programme of webinars targeted at overseas qualified dental professionals who are new to UK practice, to help them understand what it means to work in a regulated profession.
In their joint statement in the Annual Report and Accounts, the GDC’s Chair, Lord Toby Harris, and Chief Executive, Tom Whiting, said:
“As we look forward to the rest of 2024, we are confident in our Costed Corporate Plan and that it will help us play our part in working with the whole dental sector to support the continuing recovery of dentistry. This includes legislative change around how we register overseas dental professionals. We also remain committed to improving our regulatory activities where we can in the absence of legislative reform, while always ensuring that the public are protected.
“The GDC sets the framework for professional regulation and ensuring patient safety. But it is dental professionals themselves who deliver safe and effective care to their patients and whose professionalism we support. We are deeply appreciative of all that they do.”
You can find the report, including the full message from the Chair and Chief Executive, on our website.