The Society of British Dental Nurses are members of the Dental Professional Alliance (DPA). It was formed by Fiona Ellwood in 2018, with the hope of having the elected presidents or elected Chair (lead seat of the professional organisation), who is a registrant with the General Dental Council. The first member representatives were: Fiona Ellwood- SBDN, Julie Deverick -BSDHT, Donna Campbell – OTS, Stephen Taylor – BIDST, Debbie McGovern – BADT and Andrea Johnson, later joined by Matt Burnell – BACDT. All of the professional bodies who represent the wider dental team were invited to join the group.
The group came together in early 2019 as a whole and is made up of: Society of British Dental Nurses, British Society of Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy, Orthodontic Technicians Association, Orthodontic Therapists Society, British Association of Dental Therapists, and the British Association of Clinical Dental Technicians. As the President/Chair moves on the next president/chair steps into the dpa group, as we hope to keep the work collaborative work going. We were sorry to see the British Institute of Dental and Surgical Technologists come to an end and merge in to the College of General Dentistry, thankfully Stephen Taylor remained part of the group as part of BACDT.
The group is an interprofessional group who have the capacity to come together in voice to address matter that warrants a collect position and a collect drive. Through the pandemic the group were an amazing tower of strength who sought to support and direct each other with the intention of taking it back to our own professional groups. The Dental Professional Alliance does not replace the independant groups, but rather enhances their work, neither does it take the voice of the independnet group, but rather it echoes it through the collective voice. Let us not forget that the wider dental team makes up over 60% of the dental workforce.
It was truly remarkable to have support at a most challenging time. The value of coming together and sharing the challenges and working together to offer solutions, showed a level comradeship which we have never seen or experienced. All too often the orthodontic therapists, the clinical dental technologists, the orthodontic technicians and the dental technicians are omitted from discussions, meetings and documentation and this is not conducive to inclusive working. The dreadful impact of the pandemic on the laboratories was very difficult for us all to hear and the loss of the level 3 qualification another challenge. Both of these issues came to the table and we were very proud to take this to Westminster, it remains an unresolved concern at the moment, but something very much on our radar.
DPA at Westminster Feb 2023 – Tracy Wallis, Debbie Hemington, Steve Taylor, Donna Campbell, Fiona Ellwood and Richard Eggleton
DPA in House of Lords 2023 – Debbie Hemington, Tracy Wallis and Fiona Ellwood
DPA Presenting at Association of Dental Groups – Miranda Steeples, Fiona Ellwood, Tracy Wallis and Debbie Hemington
Thee DPA meets quarterly and meets with a number of the Chief Dental Officers and the regulators on a regular basis and formulate responses to consultations where a collective voice matters. The meetngs are generally held on a Saturday, although those with a stakeholder are held on a week day, but in the evening. The meetings were face-2-face 2018 – 2020 until the pandemic and then became virtual, we do hope tp get back to the occasional face-2-face meeting when possible.
The Society are keen supporters of the group and continue to contribute to it. The DPA has a twitter feed @DentalProfessi5 and can be emailed at enquiries@alliancedp.org. To discuss the Society’s position within the DPA please do contact admin@bdns.org.uk