23 October 2014 ARF decision due

The General Dental Council (GDC) announces that it will make a decision on the Annual Retention Fee (ARF) level for 2015 on 30 October 2014. The decision will follow careful analysis of more than 4,000 responses to a consultation that ran for nine weeks until 4 September 2014.

At the meeting on 30 October, the Council will be asked to consider options for the level of ARF based on three financial models (Table 1).

Table 1 ARF financial models
Full size table

29 October 2014

The British Dental Association (BDA) says that it has called on the GDC to reject all three proposed options for a rise in the ARF ahead of its meeting on 30 October. The BDA outlines six reasons for members to vote against the three tabled proposals, arguing that the GDC has repeatedly altered the methodology and justification for its proposals (the six reasons to vote against can be found on the BDA website: http://www.bda.org).

The BDA says the GDC has painted an alarmist and inaccurate picture of rapidly accelerating complaint levels, and that the options facing Council members are focusing entirely on the cash held by the regulator's reserves – options that did not feature in the consultation.

30 October 2014 09:42 Judicial review granted

The BDA announces that its application for 'rolled-up' judicial review proceedings against the GDC has been granted. The review is confirmed to take place at some point between 1-16 December 2014. These fast-tracked proceedings should enable resolution of the case before dentists are legally required to pay their professional fees on 31 December 2014.

10:23

The British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy calls on the GDC to reconsider the proposed ARF for the good of the profession. It believes that although the proposed ARF increase is not significant for dental hygienists and therapists, it will have a knock-on effect. The BSDHT supports its dentist colleagues and says that the profession as a whole should not have to pay for the GDC's inadequacies in the Fitness to practise process.

16:40 ARF announcement

The GDC announces that it is increasing its ARF from £576 to £890 for dentists and decreasing the fee for dental care professionals (DCPs) from £120 to £116. In June, the GDC proposed that the fee for dentists would increase to £945, and that the fee for DCPs would increase to £128.

The new fees must be paid by dentists by 31 December 2014 and by DCPs by 31 July 2015.

17:13

In response to the GDC's announcement that it is to press ahead with a 55% rise in its ARF for dentists, the BDA says that it will see the GDC in court.

31 October 2014

The alliance of Local Dental Committees (LDCs) says that it will hold a special national conference on 5 December 2014 to voice their lack of confidence in the GDC. Seventy-three LDCs in the UK oppose the ARF rise and consider the GDC to be out of touch and putting access to dental services at risk.

The British Association of Dental Nurses (BADN) welcomes the GDC's decision to set a lower ARF of £116 for dental nurses, but says that the fee is still too high in comparison to dental nurse salaries, especially for those who work part time.

The BADN strongly believes that the ARF for dental nurses should be considerably lower than that for hygienists and therapists, and that there should be a reduced ARF for all registrants who work part time.