Discover how proposed NHS dental contract may affect your income, career plans and pension – and how to financially prepare for what’s ahead.
The NHS dental contract could be changing – now’s the time to consider how your financial plans might need to follow suit.
It’s difficult to miss the recent announcements by care minister Stephen Kinnock setting out a phased reform of NHS dentistry, aiming to tackle urgent care access, shifting incentives, and bringing in longer-term structural change. But beyond the politics, what do these changes mean for your income, career planning, and retirement prospects?
Here are five key areas dentists should pay attention to and how they could shape your financial wellbeing:
1. Shifting payment models could affect profitability
Under the proposed new framework, practices in England will be paid £70 for urgent dental care appointments and £5 per unused urgent care slot. While UDAs aren’t disappearing just yet, the change signals a move towards rewarding access and responsiveness over volume.
If your practice currently relies heavily on routine NHS activity, you may need to adapt.
Should urgent care become a larger portion of your NHS work your earnings may fluctuate more, making financial planning more important than ever.
To prepare, consider building flexibility into your cashflow forecasts and reviewing rotas or staffing to meet likely demand patterns.
2. NHS graduate tie-ins may delay private growth
One proposal causing debate is the introduction of a three-year NHS commitment for dental graduates, in return for the £200,000+ taxpayer investment in their training.
If you’re a practice owner hiring early-career associates, this may limit their ability to contribute to private income streams as they commit to longer NHS contracts early in their careers. This could see practices needing to balance mentorship and supervision costs with more limited revenue potential in those early years.
Conversely, if you’re a graduate, this could delay access to higher earnings typically found in private or mixed practice – making early financial planning even more important.
By factoring in this slower income progression and understanding the full range of NHS employment benefits – including your pension scheme and sick pay – you can best assess how these support your wider financial goals.
3. Wider use of therapists and nurses could improve margins
The government has signalled support for expanding the role of dental care professionals (DCPs), including dental nurses delivering fluoride varnish and therapists taking on more prevention work.
Done right, this opens opportunities to reconfigure your team – freeing up dentists for more complex and higher-value treatments. With proper delegation and pricing structures, it could lead to better time efficiency and improved profitability.
Improved profitability opens further opportunities for growth, particularly if you have surplus funds over and above what you need for the day-to-day running of the practice sitting in a low interest business bank account.
Exploring alternative options for where to hold surplus business cash may yield better returns over time and could help you outpace inflation which otherwise would quietly erode purchasing power.
4. Could pension reforms improve long-term security?
While there’s no confirmed change yet to NHS pension eligibility, there’s increasing discussion around recognising more flexible NHS service patterns – which could be good news for associates, DCPs and those with portfolio careers.
If you’ve worked across multiple NHS roles or had breaks in service, it’s worth reviewing your pension record. Regardless, make sure you understand your current NHS pension entitlements and whether supplementing with a private pension makes sense for your goals.
5. Model contracts could bring more consistency – and legal clarity
Standardised associate contracts are under proposal, with the potential to introduce consistent terms for appraisals, CPD, and minimum NHS expectations.
For practice owners, this is a prompt to review associate agreements and ensure they’re compliant with NHS expectations – including cost-sharing arrangements, indemnity and pension contributions. For associates, it may offer greater security and transparency, which can feed into more confident financial planning.
Both parties should see this as an opportunity to review the locum clause and arrangements, subsequently strengthening the associate’s self-employed position for tax.
Remember: Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in the future.
Final thoughts
Whatever your role in dentistry, now’s the time to take action:
- Review your income mix and cashflow models
- Update your career and retirement financial plans
- Consider how to futureproof your practice setup
- Seek financial advice tailored to your role in NHS dentistry.
Because when the NHS contract changes, so too does the financial reality for thousands of dental professionals.
Want further guidance? Speak to a dental specialist financial adviser at Wesleyan Financial Services by visiting Wesleyan.co.uk/dental or calling 0808 149 9416.
Please note: charges may apply. You will not be charged until you have agreed to the services you require and the associated costs. Learn more at www.wesleyan.co.uk/charges.
This article is sponsored by Wesleyan Financial Services.
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