The success of Starting Well in London was revealed during a joint presentation by local commissioners. The NHS England initiative is designed to reduce oral health inequalities and improve oral health in children under the age of five years by focusing on those who are not currently visiting the dentist and providing preventive advice to parents about reducing sugar intake and increasing exposure to fluoride on teeth.

The programme was launched last year in 13 high priority areas of the UK.

Speaking at the Showcase event, Kelly Nizzer, Regional Lead for Dental, Pharmacy and Ophthalmic Services at NHS England's London Region Team, told the audience of how well the initiative was doing in Ealing – one of the high priority areas.

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Starting in January 2018, 12 dental practices had gone live as Starting Well practices, said Nizzer, which included running open days and being audited to see how many children aged 0 to 5 they were seeing.

‘It's having an impact London-wide,’ said Nizzer. ‘Since we’ve started the campaigns in January, we have around 30,000 new children from 0 to 5 who have been attending a dental practice.

The regional team was also now seeking to expand the initiative to other boroughs including Stratford, Hillingdon, and Hammersmith and Fulham by commissioning new dental practices outside Ealing and including auditable oral health promotion in their contracts.

Meanwhile Jeremy Wallman, Acting Head of Primary Care Commissioning described other work undertaken by the London team which included commissioning minor oral surgery, endodontic and orthodontic services.

The London team reflect how commissioning can work in the right circumstances.