NHS England has published an update on the national dental workforce collection which includes updated guidance.
We will be collecting this information on behalf of NHS England via Compass. Based on feedback from the profession there have been some changes made to the Compass form since the last collection.
Recordings from the 2 NHS England webinars can be watched on the following links:
If you have any queries about workforce data collection, email england.dentaloptoms@nhs.net
Completion of the workforce data collection form
Data collection will begin on Tuesday 7 May 2024 and close at 11:59pm on Monday 17 June 2024. A reminder to complete the form will be sent mid-May.
Note that completion of the collection remains a requirement for all GDS contracts and PDS agreements in England. Failure to complete this workforce collection will result in the issue of a remedial notice.
As a Provider, if you have more than one contract number in Compass with the same practice address, you may complete one workforce form, combining data for these contracts. If you choose to submit combined data, you must complete the ‘notes’ section on page 1 of the data entry form on Compass, listing these contract numbers.
Accessing the workforce data collection form
Log in to Compass.
Select the NHS England Workforce folder from the Homepage Menu:
Select the NHSE Workforce Data Collection option:
Creating the form
Once you’ve selected ‘NHSE Workforce Data Collection', you need to select the Start New Form button.
All fields on the workforce form are now mandatory.
Any fields indicated with an asterisk (*) will require overwriting to make an entry.
All other fields on the form will require the entry of a positive number or a 0 (zero) if you have no data to include.
If multiple contracts are submitted on one contract submission, the contracts numbers should be included in the box at the bottom of the first page.
Complete the rest of the form by entering the required data. Select the Next button to move to subsequent pages.
Each data field is mandatory and if there is no data to report, a 0 (zero) needs to be entered in the relevant field as you will not be able to proceed otherwise.
A form entry can be saved by using the Exit Form button. This will be shown with a status of 'Entered' in your menu list and can then be completed by selecting the Select action.
Once completed, submit the form by selecting the Submit button on the summary page.
Entries for previously submitted forms can be viewed by using the Select action for forms with a status of 'Completed'.
Any form that has been started but then cancelled will be shown with a status of Cancelled in the menu list. To start the form again select the Start New Form button.
Any form that has been started but then exited will be shown with a status of Entered in the menu list. To continue forms that are incomplete, chose the Select link from the Action column to return to where the data was last entered.
Previously submitted forms can be checked and viewed by following the same process on contracts with a status of Completed.
Requesting a reset of the workforce data collection form
Instructions are available to request a Compass form reset if you have identified an error in the submission of your workforce form.
We will aim to complete the reset within 5 working days. You are encouraged to check Compass on a regular basis after a reset request has been submitted.
Once the reset has been completed the contract will appear in your list of submissions in Compass with a status of ‘entered’. The form will still contain all the previously submitted data and corrections can be made and submitted.
Example workforce collection template
You can use our NHS England workforce data collection template (Excel: 17KB) to help collate the required data, but this data must still be transferred to Compass using the workforce data collection form.