URGENT REMINDER: Deadline approaching: sign up for the Urgent Dental Care Incentive Scheme 2025/26

URGENT REMINDER

Deadline approaching: sign up for the Urgent Dental Care Incentive Scheme 2025/26

Kristian Fogarty (Primary Care Contract Support Manager at Mid and South Essex ICB) has produced the following guidance:

Dear NHS Dental Contract holder, 

The deadline, if you wish to participate on the National Urgent Dental Care Incentive Scheme 2025/26, is fast approaching.

You must notify your commissioning team by 11.59pm on 17 October 2025 (please see ‘What you need to do next’ below for full details of required information).

How the incentive scheme works

The scheme incentivises oral healthcare teams to offer and provide 25% more unscheduled care to patients over a baseline level of urgent courses of treatment.

The scheme runs from 25 September 2025 to 31 March 2026.

How your baseline and incentives are calculated

The baseline has been calculated based on a projection of the number of band 1 urgent FP17s (also known as Band 4) estimated to be completed within 2025/26.

Using the number of urgent courses of treatment commenced on or after 1 April and completed on or before 31 July 2025, and submitted by 8 September 2025, NHSBSA will multiply this by 3 to give the projected baseline. The additional urgent courses of treatment to achieve the incentive is 25% of the baseline (rounded up to the nearest whole number).

This 25% figure will be used to calculate the incentive payment, which will be £50 per additional urgent course of treatment. You will receive the full incentive payment if you achieve the additional target of 25% more urgent courses of treatment in addition to your baseline. If you achieve at least 70% of the target additional urgent courses of treatment (in addition to your baseline), you will still receive a partial incentive payment.    

You would have received an email already confirming your contract is eligible and stating your baseline and target figures. All UDA based Mandatory Dental Services are eligible.

Further information about the scheme is available in the contractual guidance on the NHS England website. NHS England » Urgent dental care incentive scheme

What you need to do next – action required by 17 October 2025

If you do wish to participate after reading this email and the contractual guidance NHS England » Urgent dental care incentive scheme, please let your commissioning team know by sending an email with the Subject heading: 

Acceptance to participate in UDCI Scheme in 2025/26. 

Please send to dental.mse@nhs.net no later than 11:59pm on 17 October 2025 and include in the body of the email: 

• name of the person accepting participation

• address including postcode 

On 07/05/2025, Mid and South Essex ICB communicated with all practices to allow them deliver up to 110% of their contracted activity target for the 2025/26 year. 

If you do not wish to participate in the scheme, then no further action is required, and the commissioning team will assume you don’t wish to sign up. In this case, you will not be eligible to receive any incentive payments, even if you increase your delivery of unscheduled care if you do not sign-up by the deadline.

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      Essex GDPs working in SNEE or HWE must email their own ICB.

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Kind regards,

Clint Foreman

(Asst. Sec. Essex LDC)