The General Dental Council post says – The General Dental Council (GDC) today announced the appointment of Dr Helen Phillips as its new Chair from 1 October 2025, following the completion of Lord Toby Harris’s four-year term in September 2025.
Image acknowledged to GDC : Dr Phillips
Dr Phillips brings a wealth of senior experience across a 30-year career in sectors including insurance, legal, social care and further education.
A former senior environmental regulator, Dr Phillips has held numerous non-executive roles since 2015. With expertise in professional standards, she currently chairs the Chartered Insurance Institute and NHS Professionals, a workforce partner to the NHS, putting thousands of highly skilled healthcare professionals into NHS Trusts and other places to care.
Dr Phillips has also chaired the Legal Services Board and Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, where she served during the pandemic, and is an independent Commissioner at the Gambling Commission. On her new role at the UK’s regulator of more than 125,000 dental professionals, she outlined her vision for upstream regulation and supporting the dental professions to remain competent and confident throughout their careers:
“My ambition is that dental care professionals feel a sense of pride – never fear – in being regulated by a trusted, effective, proportionate regulator that embodies our values of being respectful, transparent, inclusive and purposeful.”
Dr Phillips emphasised her commitment to working with the dental professions to address systemic challenges: “We must work collaboratively with the dental sector to make meaningful progress in addressing health inequalities and the growing problem of equitable access to dental services for all.”
To read the full announcement, please follow the link: https://www.gdc-uk.org/news-blogs/news/detail/2025/07/10/dr-helen-phillips-appointed-as-new-chair-of-the-general-dental-council