Dental Foundation Training Community Projects
Community Projects
Foundation Dentists and Foundation Therapists (FDs and FTs) will embark on a project to engage with the local community to improve oral health.
The NHS “Long Term Plan” (2019) has been developed as a plan for the future of the NHS; it recognises that better patient care will only be delivered by partnership working across the system, because workforce strategy relates to decisions about service configuration, models of care, quality, and cost.
Workforce Training & Education (WT&E) Thames Valley & Wessex Dental Directorate is responsible for educating and training the health workforce in England, helping to improve the quality of care by ensuring the workforce has the right numbers, skills, values, and behaviours to support patients. This includes developing a multi-professional primary dental care workforce able to meet the needs of current and future service requirements.
In line with recommendations from the Department of Health publication ‘Delivering Better Oral Health’, the emphasis of the project is on prevention of ill-health that evidence-based research has associated with poor oral health. The aim is to achieve better oral health and thereby better general health outcomes by developing the knowledge, skills, and confidence of FDs and FTs to support Public Health initiatives.
The programme involves a series of phases over the course of the Foundation Training year:
- Phase one: Research and training on the community project including any relevant related topics.
- Phase two: Fostering links and working relationships to support the project.
- Phase three: Developing and putting the intervention into action.
- Phase four: Review progress and sharing learning.
- Phase five: Consolidation and learning more about the care pathway.
- Phase six: Evaluation and reflection
Training, guidance, and links to useful resources will be provided and further support given by TPDs during education days as necessary to facilitate progress through the phases.
Each trainee will keep a learning log as the project progresses. FDs will write up reports on the e-Portfolio using the dedicated templates that will be provided, reflecting on the project and their learning, including any changes that they have made to their practice as a result of taking part.
Each FD will review and evaluate the project’s outcomes, discussing the changes implemented and/or challenges encountered by those taking part in the intervention.
Community Outreach Project
Target Group 0-5 Year Olds
Working with local school(s)/ nurseries to promote oral health for the children in their care, by:
- Delivering training to staff to support supervised toothbrushing or adopting key messages in the setting to maintain oral health
- Running parent information sessions on oral health, or build oral health messaging into sessions on developing routines, bottle and dummy use, or healthy lunch boxes
- Aim: Enabling parents, staff and volunteers to:
- Build upon existing knowledge and experience to assist behaviour change.
- Provide healthy, ‘tooth friendly’ snack & drink choices.
- Adopt good oral hygiene practices.
Initial Meeting
Arrange a discussion with the early years setting manager to:
- Find out more about the children in their care
- Identify any specific training needs
- Offer training for staff or parents
- Agree number of people to attend training, length of session, and that there will be a training space available
- Share further information with the staff to support the project
If setting is taking part in the supervised toothbrushing programme and has received training from their provider, then offer a session for parents or get involved in helping with a toothbrushing session in the setting.
Please see separate section of the website for further details https://thamesvalley.hee.nhs.uk/supervised-toothbrushing-programme/
Provide Training and Support
- Provide Training: Using materials provided by NHSE WT&E to support the project – these can be tailored to meet the needs of the children.
- 1) Staff Training on Oral Health
2) Parent Session on Oral Health - Or look to introduce changes to the setting to improve oral health such as a ‘dummy tree’ – See this and other ideas in the Oral Health in Early Years Settings Guide.
Expectations
Provide at least two visits to the setting, the second visit can be to deliver another input or follow up on outcomes from the first session. This could be two visits to support the supervised toothbrushing sessions.- Can work in a pair but no more than two people in a group. Make it clear in your reflection what each has contributed and the learning you have had personally.
- Record this on the e-portfolio using the Community Project Planning and Reflection template.
Useful Information
Finding nurseries/early years settings near your practice use the search through Gov.uk: Find Free Education and Childcare
This should take you to the relevant Local Authority website – then search – Finding childcare in your area or List of childcare settings.