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Urgent Dental Care Incentive Scheme payments

Guidance on a practical way for practices and associates to approach the Urgent Dental Care Incentive Scheme, suggesting a fair method for distributing any additional income earned through urgent care activity.

Overview

The Urgent Dental Care Incentive Scheme launched by NHS England, runs from 25 September 2025 to 31 March 2026. It aims to incentivise dental providers to deliver 25% more urgent care courses of treatment than their baseline activity. Practices that meet the target receive a sum based on £50 per additional urgent course of treatment, and those that meet the lower activity target, receive a sum based on £25 per urgent course of treatment.

This extra money is separated from the standard Units of Dental Activity (UDA). NHS England has not clarified how associates should be remunerated, so this will be up to individual practices and associates to determine.

We believe this scheme is a reasonable use of public funds to help practices provide much needed urgent care to patients.

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