5. What is the Welsh Government doing to make sure children have access to good-quality dentistry? OQ59157

Llywydd, prevention not intervention has to be the aim of good-quality dental care for children. The Designed to Smile scheme is now operating fully again, and nearly 240,000 children have been treated in general dental services since April 2022. Of that number, over 55,000 are new patients.

Thank you, First Minister, for your answer. In my constituency, accessing a dentist is extremely difficult, and even if you get a dentist, the travelling times to those dentists can be very lengthy. So, will the First Minister look at actually bringing mobile dentists into schools, so that we can actually have them in the school, so that they can get the check-ups they need to ensure that their oral health is in good condition, because we all know that good oral health leads to the overall good health and well-being of our children? Diolch.

I thank James Evans for that, Llywydd. Members will know that originally on the order paper today was a statement from the Minister on advances in dental services in Wales, and one of the things that she would have reported to the Senedd was ideas for dealing with dental services in rural areas, and the possibility of mobile dentistry in secondary schools. So, the Member has slightly anticipated what the Minister would have said, amongst other things that she will have to say when the statement comes forward. It's to be rescheduled for two weeks' time, and I know that the Member will be listening carefully to what the Minister has to say.

In the meantime, in his part of Wales, the local health board is taking steps now to increase capacity for dental services for children. A new dental therapist has been appointed and that post is already making inroads into children who have been waiting for appointments. And a new paediatric specialist dentist has been appointed so that more children are able to receive treatment inside the county of Powys, rather than, as has been the case in the past, needing to be referred to specialist treatments further afield.

Good afternoon, First Minister. Just following up on the question from James Evans, it is the case that when children require intervention in dentistry, there are long waiting lists for that NHS treatment, particularly in the areas that we cover. During the pandemic, we know that the number of children receiving treatment fell by more than 80 per cent, so there is catch-up to be done. And here's a statistic that I find really shocking: tooth extraction remains the biggest cause of surgery under general anaesthetic in children. More than 7,000 operations were carried out in 2018. Now, I don't know about you, but I remember when I was waiting for an operation and at the thought of going under a general anaesthetic, I was quite anxious, but imagine being a child waiting for that treatment—mostly orthodontic treatment. In Powys alone, nearly 800 children are on waiting lists for NHS treatment. 

You will, of course, be aware that the Westminster Government has capped funding for remuneration in dentistry for staff at 3.5 per cent—a figure that is far below inflation. And so, we struggle not just here in Wales, but in England as well, to recruit our dentists, and that's a decision by the Conservative Government. So, would you join me in calling for more resources from Westminster to ensure that we have a robust NHS dental system not just here in Wales, but across the country, for everybody, including our children? Diolch yn fawr iawn. 

I thank Jane Dodds for that, and of course I agree with the basic proposition that she has set out that further investment across the United Kingdom in dental services would be very welcome. The Welsh Government did not set an affordability limit in our evidence to the pay review body, so the 3.5 per cent affordability level that she mentioned is advice provided by the UK Government for England only, and not advice that we have provided here in Wales.

If there were to be further investment, then as I've debated with the Member previously, my priority is for the diversification of the dental profession. And the good news is that in September of this year, we will have double the number of dental therapists emerging from Cardiff University, and that in Bangor we will have a wholly new course, again providing dental therapists for the future. What we don't need to see is the most highly trained and the most expensive part of the workforce carrying out activity that does not require that level of skill or experience to carry it out clinically appropriately and satisfactorily. We need dentistry to follow what has already happened in primary care, and to have a more diverse profession, so that the dentists we have can be concentrated on providing treatment to those patients who really need that level of care and complexity. And the future for dental services in Wales, I think, very much rests on our ability to move the profession in that direction, in the way that other parts of primary care have already managed to do successfully.