The General Dental Council has announced a new pay by instalments option for the annual retention fee (ARF), designed to support dental professionals who pay their own fee by enabling them to spread the cost over the year with quarterly direct debits. For dental care professionals (DCPs) this works out as four payments of £28.50 and for dentists it is four payments of £170.

To take advantage of the option in 2021, DCPs need to log in to eGDC from early May and select the quarterly direct debit option no later than 31 May 2021. The regulator is working to get this new option set up and says it will be in touch with DCPs when they are able to sign up.

GDC Chief Executive and Registrar, Ian Brack, said: 'We know that many dental professionals want more flexibility in how they pay the ARF. Detailed feasibility work has been completed and work is underway to make the necessary changes to our systems to allow us to offer this to DCPs this year. We expect this work to be complete by early May and DCPs who want to pay quarterly will then need to sign up by 31 May. Detailed guidance will follow nearer the time'.

The British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy (BSDHT) and the British Association of Dental Nurses (BADN) have welcomed the GDC's decision. BADN President Jacqui Elsden said: 'BADN have been lobbying the GDC for some years to allow payment by instalments, but the answer was always that this would be too costly, and additionally that it was not possible under the current legal framework'.

BADN believe that £114 a year is still too high a fee for dental nurses.

Ms Elsden said: 'We hope that now the GDC have acknowledged the financial burden the ARF places on dental nurses, they will give further consideration to BADN's two other proposals: that the ARF be lowered to a more realistic figure for dental nurses, and that a lower ARF be implemented for all dental professionals, not just dental nurses, who work part time'.

Dentists who wish to pay their ARF by instalments will be able to select this option later in the year.