New GDC Chair’s Vision Emerges
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- Published: Friday, 05 December 2025 09:26
- Written by Peter Ingle
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What is important to Dr Helen Phillips, the new GDC Chair who succeeded Lord Toby Harris on October 1st 2025?
Two months into the role, Dr Phillips’ periodic “View from the Chair” blog on the GDC website offers some clues about the issues that matter most to the Council.
Dr Phillips start by saying that since her arrival she has prioritised meeting the GDCs stakeholders and partners. She has been using these “valuable conversations to listen, learn and ask a lot of questions.” Some of this, she explains is to help her to understand where the GDC and indeed regulation fits in dentistry.
When the powers that be killed off self-regulation they made a conscious decision to ensure that dentists had little to do with the direction or activity of the GDC. They no doubt believed that this would be good for the public as it would avoid the risk of an ‘old boys club’ regulator.
But there was a downside to taking dentists out of the General Dental Council and it can be seen as Dr Phillips continues to share her insights: “It’s immediately apparent that dentistry is practiced in a complex system. From the different types of dental settings – NHS, private, community, primary and secondary care. And the types of dentistry performed – general dental practice, preventative care, specialty care. A crucial factor in this is dental workforce, including the breadth and scope of all seven professional titles in the dental team.” It turns out that non dentists don’t arrive at Wimpole Street knowing much about dentistry.
The new Chair’s view of the GDC role demonstrates the shift in the Councils purpose: “As Chair of an NHS Trust for nine years and now as Chair of NHS Professionals, I see the challenges of large-scale workforce planning, recruitment and retention. There are obvious parallels in dentistry – and some shared challenges too.” This is not the outlook of a traditional regulator, so much as a manager in a command economy.
When the Chair moves on from workforce planning, it is to look at the GDCs in-house, invitation only, discussion group, the Dental Leadership network: “We convened the tenth meeting of the 10th Dental Leadership Network in November, with the theme Act now, shape tomorrow: Strategic shifts in dental care.”
Dr Phillips went on to consider The Minister for Health and Care, Stephen Kinnock’s speech, which set out the government’s priorities for dentistry. She adds that: “The Minister said that he was ‘delighted’ by our recent announcement about the new ORE contract, which we expect could more than double the number of dentists joining the register via the ORE route. He described the increase in capacity as ‘a real step forward.”
And then a return to workforce: “In the discussions about the dental workforce, we need to be acutely aware that plans need to consider the whole dental team – there is no dentistry without dental nurses chairside; dental technicians and laboratories play a vital role; dental hygienists and dental therapists have a wide scope of practice that we should make full use of.”
There is reference to the recently published GDC strategy for 2026-2028. The first thing the Chair of the GDC has to say about this is: “Our vision is to be a trusted and effective regulator, supporting dental professionals to provide safe and effective care for their patients.” Which surely says a great deal about where the GDC is now.
In 2025 we all need to bring AI into our conversations and Dr Phillips looks to Richard Susskind, “an author and expert on the impact of AI on society,” to arrive at her definition of professionalism: “Professionalism in dentistry isn’t just about meeting standards; it is about holding yourselves to a purpose. It is the quiet courage of doing the right thing for the patient in front of you, the commitment to continual learning, and the pride of belonging to a community that safeguards the nation’s oral health. This is what sets you apart — not just as clinicians, but as professionals in the truest sense of the word.”
Dr Phillips concludes: “With rights, in this case to practise, come responsibilities and you should rightly be proud of the role you play in society – we at the GDC will play our part in supporting you in every way we can to deliver on your responsibilities.”
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