Joined Up Government Unravels Adding Workforce Woes
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- Published: Wednesday, 23 July 2025 10:20
- Written by Peter Ingle
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Whilst our political leaders may see themselves skilfully playing a game of four dimensional chess, recent performance might suggest that they would struggle with noughts and crosses.
In the latest self-inflicted wound, would-be key members of the dental team, who are already in short supply, will not be eligible for skilled worker visas, and as a result be unable to work in the UK.
The BDA have sent an open letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting, warning that the abrupt removal of these key roles will undermine their other measures intended to deal with the dental access crisis. Both medical and dental technicians (code 3213) and dental nurses (6113) will lose eligibility for skilled worker visas from 22 July 2025.
This in turn will exacerbate shortages in a wide range of roles including dental therapists, dental hygienists, orthodontic therapists, and dental nurses, and potentially the future pipeline of dentists.
Dental technician numbers on the GDC register have been in decline for some years, falling by over 10% since 2020.
It will not take long for the visa eligibility changes to have knock-on effects on the supply of dentists, because these codes are often used by overseas qualified dentists to work in other dental roles when they first come to the UK. This allows them to work in the profession and earn a living, while waiting to sit the highly oversubscribed GDC administered ORE exams, which can take years to complete.
Bringing more overseas dentists into the UK is one of the few surviving parts of the last government’s dental recovery plan that aimed to deal with the widespread workforce shortages. These have led to NHS contracts being reduced or returned, and even practice closures. Pressure was exerted on the GDC to try and ease the ORE exam bottleneck, with plans for supervised working and outsourcing the exam.
A rash of new and proposed dental schools will not reduce the overreliance on overseas workers, since training new team members, let alone in sufficient numbers, will take years. Official data shows 100 applicants sought dental nursing visas in just the 6 months from Quarter 4 2024 to Quarter 1 of 2025, alongside 88 medical and dental technicians.
The BDA stress that both occupational codes 3213 and 6613 should be retained in the Immigration Rules without changes, so that individuals currently applying for visas will receive them. Failing this, these codes must appear in the new temporary shortage list as of 22 July 2025.
BDA Chair Eddie Crouch commented: “Changes to immigration rules for skilled dental team members, risk deepening an access crisis already felt by millions. Everyone agrees we should be focused on building home grown talent, but this cliff-edge approach is careless and will be felt by patients the length and breadth of this country.”
It would be ironic, if not surprising, that as the GDC finally gets a grip on the ORE exam, the number of applicants could drop.
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