A view from the Chair: September’s Council meeting, and the value of feedback

Highlights from September’s Council meeting

In September’s Council meeting last week, we reviewed the latest plans for the GDC’s budget and Costed Corporate Plan (CCP) for 2025–2027. This is an important step towards confirming the budget and plan, which in turn sets the Annual Renewal Fee (ARF) for dental professionals in 2025. These will be agreed by Council in October.

Council also approved the GDC’s proposals for revised standards for education, which we will invite feedback on through a public consultation in the autumn. The GDC has a legal responsibility to assure the standard of pre-registration education and training. As part of our work to ensure the quality of dental education, the standards for education set out the requirements expected of all pre-registration programmes and are the framework of our education quality assurance processes.

In the last 9 months, we have engaged with external stakeholders from a range of professions to understand what is working well and what new areas should be included in these standards. The proposals reflect the insight we have heard so far, and the public consultation will be an opportunity to hear wider feedback.

Council also noted progress on developing the GDC’s strategic priorities from 2026. We will share our proposals with stakeholders in the first half of 2025 and consult on the strategy in summer 2025.

Outcome of the call for evidence regarding the Overseas Registration Examination (ORE)

Listening to feedback and ideas is very important for developing the GDC’s policy and priorities. This month we published the outcome report resulting from a call for evidence into the structure and operation of the ORE.

In the outcome report, we summarise the feedback we received and our response. This, again, highlights the role of consultations in shaping dental regulation. The evidence will inform our future approach to registration for internationally qualified dentists and dental care professionals, while we continue work to increase the capacity of the ORE, as our priority.

The value of feedback

Thank you to everyone who responded to the GDC’s proposals to improve specialist list application routes. We are now analysing responses and Council will then make a decision on how we increase transparency, fairness, and consistency with this route.

The consultation into proposals to update guidance for Practice Committees is open until 26 November – please do respond if you have an interest. GDC’s Practice Committees have a vital role in fitness to practise and it is important that their decision-making guidance is clear and transparent. This is part of our work to reduce the negative impact of fitness to practise where we can.