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 Fit for the Future: The 10 Year Health Plan for England (2025) has been developed as a plan for the future. The NHS recognises that better patient care will only be delivered working across the system.
NHS England Workforce Training & Education (WT&E) 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.
This project will also help trainees transition into new ways of working as outlined in the proposed dental contract reform and support the ambition of the 10-Year Health Plan to move from sickness to prevention.
The programme involves a series of phases over the course of the Foundation Training year:
- Phase one: Undertaking training on the community project, familiarisation with the WT&E TV:WX resources and undertaking further individual research on relevant topics
- Phase two: Fostering links, developing and then putting the intervention into action – evidenced by the completed planning template being uploaded to the ePortfolio
- Phase three: Reviewing progress and gaining feedback, consolidating learning through evaluation and reflection, then documenting this on the template provided and adding to the ePortfolio.
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.
These should be uploaded to the ePortfolio in the Uploads section as Word Documents for review.
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.
Target Group Children and Young People
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.
Hampshire and Winchester Schemes
You will be working with Saints Foundation. You will be able to work in pairs and will be assigned a secondary school in which you will run a session with a Saints Community Champion on the theme ‘Preparing for the World of Work’.
The final dates for the school sessions in 2027 will not be confirmed until January but please hold provisional dates for now. Further input will be added to the website when content and dates are confirmed.
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.
Impact of Prolonged bottle or Dummy Use
Useful Information and Resources
Resources
Brushing Chart Saints Project
Community Project Planning & Reflection Framework – Saints Foundation
Healthy Mouth Adults – Quick Guide
Sugar Quiz with Answers
Colgate Infographic