The General Dental Council (GDC) has launched a pilot scheme to ensure that concerns about dentists' performance are handled where appropriate by the local NHS in England, rather than through the GDC's fitness to practise processes.

The approach will require an early dialogue between the GDC and the NHS, which manages the contracts offered to dentists, to ensure that the GDC deals only with fitness to practise cases while the NHS deals with other issues of performance management.

The pilot, which began in January, will aim to explore the full potential of this approach and will involve the GDC working with five NHS England Local Area Teams (LATs) over 12 months.