The British Dental Association is being urged to ballot members on taking collective action if the Government ‘continues to disregard DDRB recommendations’ by delegates at this week’s LDCs Conference.
A motion from Leeds local dental committee calls on the BDA to ‘commit to robust escalation measures should the government continue to disregard DDRB recommendations, including—but not limited to—balloting members on collective action where appropriate’.
A separate motion, from Birmingham LDC, says it is time to ‘revisit plans for a national CPD day of action’ to pressurise the Department of Health and Social Care to apply an appropriate expenses uplift.
The annual gathering of representatives from the 110 LDCs across the UK takes place at the Manchester Deansgate Hotel on 4-5 June 2026, with this year's conference carrying the title 'Subject to Change' to reflect the uncertainty currently facing the profession.
The Leeds motion reads: ‘The BDA/GDPC has tried the collaborative approach, but the Government is not listening. Conference asks for the BDA/GDPC to consider a different approach to show the Government that dentists cannot continue with the current situation of contract negotiation.’
Alongside balloting the profession, it calls on the BDA to define red lines and ceasing negotiations when they are crossed, and ‘reassert the BDA’s role as a strong, assertive, and unapologetic trade union’.
The Birmingham LDC motion reads: ‘This Conference believes it is now time to revisit plans for a national CPD day of action to pressurise the Department of Health and Social Care to apply an appropriate expenses uplift to NHS dental contracts, rather than relying on the GDP deflator, which does not reflect the true cost of delivering care in general dental practice.’
Concerns over transparency and engagement feature elsewhere on the conference agenda.
A Enfield and Haringey LDC motion demands that government dental teams and negotiators make all relevant data and data sources available to the BDA.
The motion’s supporting statement argues that the BDA is hamstrung in negotiations by being denied access to data it knows to exist and which is being used by the government – such as a cost-of-service report that informed the government's strategy on recent contractual reform.
The role of NHS England's Office of the Chief Dental Officer (OCDO) will also come under scrutiny at the conference.
An Enfield and Haringey LDC motion demands that the OCDO appoints an advisory member who is a practising NHS dentist working in primary care and delivering a full range of NHS treatments.
The supporting statement argues that senior OCDO officers have no significant current experience of working in NHS primary care and therefore neither understand nor accurately represent the reality of frontline practice to politicians.
Motions in full
Leeds LDC, Munaf Qayyum
The BDA/GDPC has tried the collaborative approach, but the Government is not listening. Conference asks for the BDA/GDPC to consider a different approach to show the Government that dentists cannot continue with the current situation of contract negotiation.
Supporting statement:
We call on the BDA/GDPC to:
- Commit to robust escalation measures should the government continue to disregard DDRB recommendations, including—but not limited to—balloting members on collective action where appropriate.
- Define explicit red lines beyond which continued negotiation without progress will cease.
- Actively challenge government narratives that normalise underfunding and workforce loss in NHS dentistry.
- willing to apply pressure to protect NHS dentists and the future of NHS dentistry.
Birmingham LDC, Ranjit Singh-Chohan
This Conference believes it is now time to revisit plans for a national CPD day of action to pressurise the Department of Health and Social Care to apply an appropriate expenses uplift to NHS dental contracts, rather than relying on the GDP deflator, which does not reflect the true cost of delivering care in general dental practice.
Supporting statement:
When the DDRB recommends an uplift to NHS dental contract values, the final figure applied by the Department of Health and Social Care is often reduced through the use of a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deflator. This mechanism is complex, lacks transparency, and is poorly understood within the profession.
More importantly, the GDP deflator does not reflect the real and increasing costs faced by general dental practices. Expenses such as staffing, laboratory fees, waste disposal, materials, compliance and energy have risen significantly, and these pressures are not captured by a broad macroeconomic measure. As a result, contract uplifts frequently fall short of what is required to maintain the viability of NHS dental services, placing increasing financial strain on practices.
This motion calls for a renewed and collective response, including consideration of a CPD day of action, to highlight the need for a more appropriate and transparent method of calculating expenses uplift that properly reflects the cost of delivering NHS dentistry.