<p>NHS England, regional teams and integrated care boards across England are working together to ensure that patients continue to have access to National Health Service dental care. This includes an assessment to identify potential gaps in NHS dental service provision and to consider what actions may be required.</p><p>NHS dentists are required to keep their NHS.UK profiles up to date so that patients can find a dentist more easily. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients.</p><p>We are taking measures to increase access to NHS dentistry. We are working with Health Education England and NHS England to understand how Centres for Dental Development could be delivered to improve access in areas where there is currently a shortage in provision.</p><p>In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which sets out how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to NHS dental care, including in the North West and Southport, whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices. These changes were an important first step, but we know we need to do more. We are working on further changes which will be announced later this year. NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population. Many of the dentistry commissioning functions undertaken by NHS England will transfer to integrated care boards from April 2023, supported by an Assurance Framework to provide assurances on commissioning.</p><p>The Government is also committed to publishing a long-term workforce plan shortly which will cover dentists and other dental healthcare professionals.</p>