Dental Working Patterns Survey 2016/17and 2017/18
Guidance Notes for Scotland
The survey relates to your typical time spent in primary care dentistry in two financial years – 2016/17 and 2017/18.
- Contact details incorrect?
The address given on the survey letter has been provided by the NHS National Services Scotland based on your NHS dental activity in 2016/17.Please do not worry if it is out of date.
- What is primary care dentistry?
Primary care dentistry is primary care dental treatment provided outside of hospitals, and includes dentistry provided in independent dental practices and the Public Dental Service, as well as emergency dental services provided as part of NHS Board led arrangements. Primary care dentistry consists of NHS and private work and can occur in more than one practice.
Please note that primary care dentistry includes time spent on relevant non-clinical work (which can include administrative and management duties) and can also involve orthodontic work,domiciliary care or dentistry performed on referral.
It does not include secondary care, time spent working for a post-graduate deanery or in dental school.
- Number of months you worked as a practising primary care dentist
Please include the number of months you worked as a primary care dentist (as defined above); during these months you may have taken holidays, or performed secondary dental care as well.Please note that any extended period of continuous absence of one month or more (e.g. maternity/sickness leave) should be excluded.
If you were working in a primary care dental practice for 12 months, and also working in a hospital part time for part of the year, you would mark down 12 months in the box provided.
If you worked only 2 days per week as a primary care dentist, but did so for the entire year, you would mark down 12 months in the box provided.
- Clinical work
For the purpose of answering this survey, clinical work is defined as all face-to-face contact with patients (including preventative care).
- Annual leave
Please only include annual leave as time away from dentistry; this does not include time away from dentistry due to extenuating circumstances (such as sickness, maternity leave, compassionate reasons etc.), nor does it include time away for continuing professional development (CPD).
NHS Working Arrangement
Please see Annex A for detailed descriptions of each dental type (NHS working arrangement).
- Completed Question 6/14 – Example A
The dentist is an owner of one dental practice, has an arrangement with a NHSBoard and provides general dental services within the practice. The dentist also has two other dentists working within the practice in associateship arrangements. This dentist would answer Question6/14 as below:
Arrangement / Please tickPractice Owner/Director/Partner /
Associate– Incorporated
Associate
Other(please state………………..)
- Completed Question 6/14 – Example B
The dentist is an owner of one dental practice, has an arrangement with a NHSBoard and provides general dental services within the practice. The dentist also provides general dental services in the practice of another dentist (under an associateship arrangement). This dentist would answer Question 6/14 as shown below. Please note, if the dentist switched arrangements in the year, becoming a Practice Owner/Director/Partner after being an Associate only (or vice versa), they would answer in the same way.
Arrangement / Please tickPractice Owner/Director/Partner /
Associate– Incorporated
Associate /
Other(please state………………..)
- Completed Question 6/14 – Example C
The dentist works for their own limited company and has an arrangement with a NHSBoard to provide GDS, but they do not own their own practice. Their company provides dentistry for another practice owner/director/partner under an associateship arrangement. The dentist would answer Question 6/14 as below:
Arrangement / Please tickPractice Owner/Director/Partner
Associate– Incorporated /
Associate
Other(please state………………..)
- What is a Business Arrangement?
Practice owner/director/partner dentists who have an arrangement or arrangements with a NHSBoardto be a practice owner/director/partner and provide dentistry can choose to run their businesses under a number of different methods.
For each arrangement that you have where you were the practice owner/director/partner, please indicate the business arrangement in the table provided.
Associate – Incorporated dentists work for their own body corporate. The dentists and/or body corporate has an arrangement(s) with NHS Board or an associateship arrangement with a practice owner to provide general dental services. Please indicate the business arrangement (Limited Company or Limited Liability Partnership) in the table provided.
Please see Annex A for a more detailed description of each business arrangement.
- Completed Question 7/15 – Example A
The dentist does not personally hold an arrangement with a NHSBoard, but is an owner/director/partner of a limited company, and this limited company holds two contracts, with two separate NHSBoards.This dentist would answer Question 7/15 as below:
Business Arrangement / Please tickLimited Company /
Limited Liability Partnership
‘True’ Partnership
Expense Sharing Group
Sole Trader without other dentists working for them
Sole Trader with other dentists working for them
Other (please state…………………………)
- Completed Question 7/15 – Example B
The dentist has one arrangement with a NHSBoard and is the owner of one dental practice.The dentist is the sole provider of general dental services in this practice. This dentist would answer Question 7/15 asbelow:
Business Arrangement / Please tickLimited Company
Limited Liability Partnership
‘True’ Partnership
Expense Sharing Group
Sole Trader without other dentists working for them /
Sole Trader with other dentists working for them
Other (please state…………………………)
- Completed Question 7/15 – Example C
The dentist has a total of two arrangements with NHSBoards and is the owner of two dental practices.In the first practice, the dentist is the sole provider of general dental services.In the second practice the dentist provides general dental services, but also has associates providing general dental services in the practice. This dentist would answer Question 7/15as shown below.Please note, if the dentist switched business arrangements within the year, they would answer in the same way.
Business Arrangement / Please tickLimited Company
Limited Liability Partnership
‘True’ Partnership
Expense Sharing Group
Sole Trader without other dentists working for them /
Sole Trader with other dentists working for them /
Other (please state…………………………)
If you have any queries about the questionnaire, or any comments or concerns regarding this survey, please contact the NHS Digital Contact Centre on 0300 303 5678(9am-5pm Mon-Fri) or via email at
Annex A
Working Arrangement (Dental Type) / DefinitionPractice Owner/
Director/Partner / The dentist provides general dental services and is an owner/director/partner of a dental practice(s) or body corporate (Limited company or Limited Liability Partnership). The dentist and/or the company has an arrangement with a NHS Board to provide general dental services.
Associate - Incorporated / The dentist is not a principal but works for their own body corporate (Limited company or Limited Liability Partnership).The dentist and/or body corporate has an arrangement(s) with a NHS Board to provide general dental services. The dentist and/or the body corporate has an associateship arrangement with a practice owner (as defined above).
Associate / The dentist has an associateship arrangement with a Practice Owner (as defined above) and also has an arrangement(s) with a NHS Board to provide general dental services.
Other / e.g. General Dental Practitioner employed by the Public Dental Service or Assistant, including a Vocational Dental Practitioner.
Business Arrangement / Definition
Limited Company / Dentist is an owner/director/partner of a Limited Company, also known as a body corporate. The dentist and/or the company has an arrangement with a NHS Board to provide general dental services.
Limited Liability Partnership / Dentist is a partner in a partnership whose liability is limited by law (also known as a body corporate).The dentist and/or the partnership has an arrangement with a NHS Board to provide general dental services.
‘True’ Partnership / Profit sharing partnership.
Expense Sharing Group / Dentist who shares expenses with other dentist(s) but retains own profit.
Sole Trader without other dentists working for them / Dentist is self-employed and is the sole dentist within the practice to have an arrangement(s) with a NHS Board to provide general dental services.
Sole Trader with other dentists working for them / Dentist is self-employed and has an arrangement(s) with a NHS Board to provide general dental services, but also has associateship arrangements with other dentists who provide general dental services.
Other / Please state.