The National Health Service (Performers Lists) (England) Regulations 2013

Interpretation: foundation training

30.—(1) In this Part, “foundation training” means a relevant period of employment during which a dental practitioner is employed under a contract of service by an approved trainer to provide a wide range of dental care and treatment and to attend such study days as that contract provides, with the aims and objectives of enhancing clinical and administrative competence and promoting high standards through relevant postgraduate training and in particular to—

(a) enable the dental practitioner to practise and improve the dental practitioner’s skills;

(b) introduce the dental practitioner to all aspects of dental practice in primary care;

(c) identify the dental practitioner’s personal strengths and weaknesses and balance them through a planned programme of training;

(d) promote oral health of, and quality dental care for, patients;

(e) develop and implement peer and self review, and promote awareness of the need for professional education, training and audit as a continuing process; and

(f) enable the dental practitioner to—

(i) make competent and confident professional decisions including decisions for referrals to other services,

(ii) demonstrate that the dental practitioner is working within the guidelines regarding the ethics and confidentiality of dental practice,

(iii) implement regulations and guidelines for the delivery of safe practice,

(iv) know how to obtain appropriate advice on, and practical experience of, legal and financial aspects of practice, and

(v) demonstrate that the dental practitioner has acquired skill and knowledge in the psychology of care of patients and can work successfully as a member of a practice team.

(2) In the definition of “foundation training” in paragraph (1), “relevant period of employment” means—

(a) one year’s full-time employment;

(b) an equivalent period of part-time employment; or

(c) in the case of a dental practitioner who is not exempt under regulation 34(4) from the requirement to undertake foundation training and has not completed foundation training as mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) or (b), but—

(i) has performed community dental service,

(ii) has otherwise gained experience of dentistry in primary care as a dental practitioner, or

(iii) has been employed in a hospital as a dental practitioner,

such period of employment, which may be less than but is to not exceed that in sub-paragraph (a) or such an equivalent period of part-time employment, as a postgraduate dental dean or director of postgraduate dental education determines that dental practitioner must complete in order to have satisfactorily completed foundation training.