Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Health Education Thames Valley and Wessex Dental School offers a comprehensive programme of dental CPD courses that cover GDC core and recommended topics for all dental professionals. It also provides refresher courses; courses to enable dentists and DCPs to keep up to date, maintain and learn new clinical skills and to contribute to the well-being of the practice team as a whole.

To book one of the Dental Courses in the Deanery, please visit the course booking system.  The courses are heavily subsidised by the NHS. You will have to pay for refreshments and a bench fee for practical clinical courses, to cover additional costs such as dental materials.

Most courses are open to all UK dental professionals. Where local funding has been provided for a specific group of practitioners, access may be restricted.

If you are a dentist and don’t currently have an NHS Performers List number, you can still access our courses by paying a surcharge of £50.00 per course.

Dental Foundation and Core Training

The primary aim of Dental Foundation Training is to enable acquisition and demonstration of the dental foundation training competences to enable a dentist to join the NHS Performers List without conditions. From September 2015 all Deaneries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be introducing and piloting ‘satisfactory completion’ for Foundation Dentists. There will be a formal, robust assessment framework, which will ensure that each Foundation Dentist has demonstrated the required competencies in all four domains of the Dental

Foundation Training (DFT) Curriculum: clinical, professional, communication and leadership and management, in order to be awarded a Dental Foundation Training Certificate.

Length of Dental Foundation Training:  Dental Foundation Training will normally be undertaken for one year full time or exceptionally part time equivalent over 2 years.

Completion of Dental Foundation Training:  The Postgraduate Dental Dean is responsible for certifying completion of dental foundation training. On successful completion of the programme, a Certificate will be issued that satisfies the requirements of the NHS Performers List Regulations (England) 2013.

Dental Core Training

Dental Core Training is a voluntary 12-month programme that aims to provide dentists with the opportunity to consolidate skills acquired during the foundation year and develop and enhance new skills in specific areas of clinical practice and in different environments. On successful completion of the programme, the Postgraduate Dental Dean will issue a certificate, but this does not confer any statutory rights or permissions. Completion of dental core training will also satisfy minimum entry requirements to specialty training. Trainees should be aware that recruitment to specialty training is a highly competitive process and additional qualifications, experience and training may be necessary to secure a place.

The Berkshire Scheme

The Berkshire scheme is part of the innovative and forward thinking Health Education Thames Valley Deanery. The educational programme at Berkshire is engaging, interactive, varied and fun, encompassing all the principles of adult education theory. The ethos for the Berkshire scheme is to "inspire, support and achieve".

The day release programme (normally held on a Thursday) offers a packed and varied programme including clinical hands-on sessions, residential courses, a dental conference, visits to institutions and interactive lectures. All the main clinical subjects are covered, including endodontics, oral surgery and advanced restorative techniques, as well as many you wouldn't have thought of!  The programme is continually evolving with an array of expert speakers and relevant up-to-date topics to provide you with the best possible start to your career in dentistry.

Annual Events and Activities

The Berkshire scheme works closely with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire schemes and has many shared day release sessions with them. Berkshire's foundation dentists have the enviable opportunity to visit Chicago for the mid-winter conference in February. It's a great opportunity to learn about dentistry in another country and explore a great American city. Foundation dentists are also invited to a leadership and team building event early in their foundation year at Lake Vyrnwy in Powys, Mid Wales, which is another major highlight.

Location

The study days are mainly based at the John Lister Postgraduate Centre in Wexham Park Hospital, Slough. All the training Practices are based in East Berkshire, with the majority of them in the Slough area, making this scheme the most logistically convenient in the Deanery. 

Berkshire is a beautiful Royal county with stunning countryside and pretty villages to explore.  Historic Windsor is close by, with its famous, largest inhabited castle in the World, as well as a vibrant town with shopping, restaurants, bars and clubs.

Enjoy annual events like Royal Ascot, the Windsor triathlon & the Henley Regatta.

In addition to this, the fast train from Slough to London Paddington is as quick as 16 minutes!

Scheme Contact Details

Luke Williams, scheme administrator 
luke.williams6@nhs.net 
0300 615 4383

Rajan Syal, training programme director
rajan.syal@thamesvalley.hee.nhs.uk.