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Conscious sedation assurance pilot

In March 2017 NHS England’s Office of Chief Dental Officer England published Commissioning Dental Services: Service standards for Conscious Sedation in a primary care setting.

The document set out the requirements for a contractor who offers care under conscious sedation within primary care. The expectation on the publication of the guidance was for contractors to be compliant with the standards as soon as possible and by 2020 at the latest. It is understood that there have been gaps or delays in adhering to this requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

NHSBSA Provider Assurance Dental (PAD) team have been approached to facilitate the collection and review of submissions moving forwards, and we will therefore be conducting a pilot that covers contracts commissioned to provide NHS sedation services. The pilot will begin in regions where there has been an agreement to conduct this exercise, with a view to extending to other regions later.

The aim of this pilot is to:

  • support commissioning teams in the pilot to evidence compliance to the standards for contracts where sedation is provided
  • support contractors’ awareness of their responsibilities to deliver effective and safe care that is compliant with best practice and published guidance

Sedation compliance self-declaration form

All contracts commissioned to provide NHS sedation services for the commissioning teams included in the pilot will be contacted by NHSBSA PAD and requested to complete a self-declaration form to evidence compliance.

Documentation may be requested for a sample of contracts by the NHSBSA PAD team at a later date to support their submitted declarations.

Access Compass to complete the sedation compliance self-declaration form. You can view information about accessing Compass on our Compass webpage.

You can also view guidance for completing the sedation compliance self-declaration form (PDF: 472KB).