New Dental Care Incentive Launched by the NHS For Practitioners.
What is this new and improved incentive?
Dental practices that deliver 125% or more of their baseline urgent care activity will now receive a £50 payment per course of urgent treatment, in addition to the existing 1.2 Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) awarded under the NHS dental contract.
Practices achieving between 117.5% and 125% of their baseline will still benefit, earning £25 per urgent treatment course. However, those operating at 100% to 117.4% of their baseline will not receive any additional incentive.
The baseline figure will be determined by projecting the volume of urgent care delivered between April and July 2025 into a 12-month average. This calculated baseline will then be shared with all participating practices.
Participation in the incentive scheme will be managed through an opt-in process coordinated by Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), who will invite practices to express their interest by 17 October 2025.
Officially launched on 25 September 2025, the scheme will remain in effect until 31 March 2026.
But does the reward outweigh the risk?
While the growing demand for urgent dental care has been widely recognized, some dental professionals have raised concerns about whether the new incentive scheme is the most effective solution.
Shiv Pabary, Chair of the British Dental Association’s (BDA) General Dental Practice Committee, expressed skepticism about the approach, stating:
“This scheme is a further admission that the NHS underpays for urgent dental care, but there are better ways to pay for it and secure access for patients than what is proposed.”
Pabary explained that the BDA previously proposed sessional payments to the government as a more sustainable model — one that has already shown success at local levels.
He also highlighted the uncertainty practices face when trying to forecast the volume of urgent care they can deliver before the scheme ends in March 2026:
“At this stage in the year, it is difficult for dentists to accurately predict how much urgent care – that is demand-led – will be delivered by the end of March next year. Practices will need to decide for themselves whether the reward on offer is worth the risk of delivering additional urgent care, but missing the threshold and receiving just 1.2 UDAs.”
Despite these challenges, Pabary acknowledged that for practices with the capacity to increase activity, the scheme presents a rare opportunity for additional funding — something that has been largely unavailable since the introduction of the capped NHS dental contract in 2006.
Credit to Rowan Thomas and Dentistry.co.uk