Dental Nurse Training

1. Dental Nurse Training West Midlands Region

2. Background • All Dental Nurses will need to be registered with the GDC or on an approved training programme by July 2008 • They can register if they have an accredited qualification or if they have sufficient experience in the workplace.

3. Specialist Provider Network involvement • Members of the SPN who had Dental Nurse Training provision were invited to an exploratory meeting at the SHA on 6th November 2007 • These providers shared details of their experience and agreed to form the basis of a regional consortium • A further meeting was planned for 29th November and all LSC funded providers of Dental Nurse Training in the West Midland were invited to attend and to become members of the consortium.

4. SPN Continued • Matthew Boulton College hosted the meeting and Terms of Reference for the consortium were developed. • A budget was provided by the SHA to cover refreshments and the attendees discussed how we might use £80,000 that had been allocated by the SHA to support training leading to registration.

5. Dental Nurse Consortium • The consortium agreed to move towards offering NVQs across the region although in the short term the NEBDN certificate may still be offered • Materials would be developed to support students undertaking the NVQ, pre course materials and a Web based VLE would be commissioned. • NVQ assessors would be appointed in areas that had no NVQ provision currently • All consortium members were invited to tender for these projects

6. Dental Nurse Consortium • JIF funding has been made available to support Dental Nurse training. This includes a refund of the employer payment for the level 3 trial and tuition fees for students in areas that have no provision. • All members of the consortium need to link with their Dental Lead on the PCT to promote the work that we are doing and to ensure that there is sufficient funding for training set aside in budgets.

7. Dental Nurse Consortium • Next steps: • Partnership working between providers who are setting up NVQ centres for IVing etc. • Development of the pre course materials, course materials and VLE • Ensuring access to funding through the JIF for Dental Nurses who need to register with the GDC • Monitoring of training provision across the region to provide equality of opportunity to all dental nurses who need to be on a training programme • To consider progression opportunities to Foundation Degrees and other HE courses

8. Dental Nurse Consortium • Questions??