Dental Workforce

Background

This publication is to report the findings of a survey of the dental workforce in England.

All dental providers in England who, at the end of December 2024, held either a General Dental Services (GDS) contract or Personal Dental Services (PDS) agreement were asked to provide data and 97% of them submitted a response.

The collection was carried out between January and April 2025, and reports the position as at the end of December 2024.

This publication aims to help understand the facilities available for the provision of NHS dental care in England and numbers of staff across a range of professions. It also aims to illustrate providers’ experience in staff recruitment and retention, as well as instances of long-term absences.

This publication is classed as ‘Management Information’.

A supplementary set of information focusing on the providers of Community Dental Services (CDS), which is a subset of the main data set, is also provided. However not all CDS provision is covered by the two contracts in scope for this data collection (General Dental Services (GDS) contracts or Personal Dental Services (PDS) agreements), so the data are incomplete, and it is important to note that this supplementary analysis does not constitute a full picture of staff providing Community Dental Services in the NHS in England.