Dear Team,

The majority of the UK's 90,000 dental care professionals are women and many of them work part-time. This makes the recent high profile employment tribunal involving two dental nurses (https://www.nature.com/articles/bdjteam2018151) highly relevant to BDJ Team readers. We now know that employers need to take extra care that any change in employment status does not become discriminatory. In his excellent article on page 19 James Goldman explains how employment law looks after the interests of part-time employees.

In a similar vein, in this issue (https://www.nature.com/articles/bdjteam2018151) we provide information to team members in orthodontic practices who might be affected by the fall-out from current tendering processes. Employment matters are also covered by Cary Cray-Webb's article on staff retention on page 9.

When Chief Dental Officer Sara Hurley took office, she made children's oral health a priority. It took a while for all her work to come together but, as reported in the last issue, resources have recently been made available to dental practices throughout England via Local Dental Networks to support Smile4life.

In this issue we provide some inspiring articles relating to children's oral health. One is the Mini Mouthcare Matters initiative at Great Ormond Street Hospital written by dental nurse Claire Fletcher, another the work carried out in Kenya by a team pulled together by hygienist Rachael England.

Meanwhile, in the UK, Claire Berry is raising awareness of the role of hygienists by championing the cosmetic procedures she can offer.

If you have a story to tell, don't hesitate to get in touch.