Fall in average income for self-employed NHS dentists, says NHS Information Centre report

An NHS Information Centre report into dental pay in England and Wales suggests a fall in average taxable income (net earnings from self-employment, before the deduction of pension contributions) for most groups of dentists during 2009/10.

*Regional information to SHA level is available

Dental Earnings and Expenses, England and Wales, 2009/10 shows that in 2009/10, self employed primary care dentists earned on average £84,900 in taxable income, a 5.2 per cent decrease compared to the 2008/09 average of £89,600.

The report considers the earnings and expenses of self-employed, full and part-time primary care dentists who undertook some NHS work in England or Wales in the year, and covers both their NHS and private income.

It also shows that in 2009/10:

• About 1.5 per cent of dentists (approximately 310) earned a taxable income of £300,000 or more, while the majority (55.8 per cent) earned a taxable income of less than £75,000.

• Dentists who worked in a practice but who did not hold a contract with a Primary Care Trust (PCT in England) or Local Health Board (LHB in Wales), earned on average £65,600 in taxable income, a 3.1 per cent decrease compared to the 2008/09 average of £67,800.

• Practising dentists who held a contract with a PCT or LHB to provide NHS dental services earned on average £128,000 in taxable income. Statistically, this is not significantly different to the average of £131,000 earned in 2008/09.

The percentage fall in average taxable income for dentists overall, which is larger than that for individual groups, may partly be explained by dentists moving between different contracting groups during this time period.

Today’s report also looks at earnings and expenses by the working patterns of the dentists, their age and gender, their level of orthodontic activity and the Strategic Health Authority in which they worked.

NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “Today’s report covers the fourth financial year since the new dental contract was introduced in England and Wales in 2006.

“Information about the average dental pay packet of course is of key interest to the dental community, but today’s figures also provide a useful insight for the wider NHS.”

The report for England and Wales is at: www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/dentalearnexp0910enwa

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. The NHS Information Centre is England’s authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS Information Centre also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
2. A new dental contract was introduced in England and Wales on 1st April 2006. One element of the new contractual arrangements was a move away from paying dentists for individual treatment items to a system whereby dentists are remunerated for an agreed level of dental activity. They have moved away from a retrospective payment system to one which they are paid in monthly instalments.
3. The report for England and Wales was agreed by a joint working group made up of The NHS Information Centre, and representatives from the Department of Health, the Welsh Government, the British Dental Association, the Secretariat for the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body, the NHS Business Services Authority Dental Services, and the National Association of Specialist Dental Accountants and Lawyers.
4. The report considers all self-employed primary care dentists who carried out some NHS activity in England or Wales during 2009/10. This population is split into two cohorts and results are displayed for Providing-Performer dentists, who contract with Primary Care Trusts or Local Health Boards to provide an agreed level of dental services and also perform dental services, and for Performer Only dentists, who perform dental services but do not hold a contract with a Primary Care Trust or Local Health Board. Average income before tax is made up of gross earnings less expenses.
5. The population is sourced from data provided by NHS Dental Services, with the initial inclusion criteria being those dentists who reported having undertaken NHS work during 2009/10. In some cases, a subsequent sample was determined from the results of the ‘Dental Working Patterns Survey’, administered to all dentists (who had some NHS activity recorded within 2008/09 or 2009/10) across England and Wales. The source for the data in respect of earnings and expenses is the self assessment (SA) tax return held on the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) SA system, which covers earnings from all self-employed sources, including private practice. Analyses were carried out on an anonymised tax data for dentists with an accounting year ending in the final quarter of 2009/10 by HMRC statisticians; only aggregated non disclosive data were supplied to the NHS Information Centre.
6. The results in the report are estimates based on samples, and therefore each figure has a small margin of error. Differences highlighted in this press release by stating percentage increases or decreases are 'statistically significant', which means that the statistical analysis suggests that the differences in the estimates reflect true differences rather than possibly being the effects of sampling error.
7. For media enquiries please call 0845 257 6990 or contact mediaenquiries@ic.nhs.uk