Dental schools have called for clinical researchers to receive pay and employment terms equivalent to NHS colleagues as part of a four-point plan to rebuild the UK’s shrinking dental academic workforce.
The Dental Schools Council also recommended clearer and more flexible research career routes, stronger leadership and mentoring, and formal monitoring of progress.
The recommendations appeared in a new report on the decline in UK clinical researchers, published by UK Research and Innovation. It included a sub-report from the Dental and Oral Health Task and Finish Group, led by the Dental Schools Council.
The four proposed actions were to:
- Clarify and further develop inclusive, flexible and agile career routes, schemes and pathways for clinical researchers in oral health, with particular attention to dental care professionals and general dental practice across all four UK nations
- Ensure high-quality leadership and mentorship in building clinical research capacity
- Ensure parity of pay, terms and conditions between clinical researchers and their NHS equivalents
- Establish a commitment to reviewing and monitoring progress.
Dental research workforce decline
The report notes the rapid decline in oral health research staff, with 75 full-time equivalent (FTE) posts lost in the past 20 years. It also draws attention to the shifting demographic in the workforce, with 88% aged 36 and over and women underrepresented in senior roles. Strikingly, there is a complete absence of Black lecturers or senior lecturers.
Professor Chris Day, chair of the Russell Group, warned that ‘the UK risks losing ground in the global research economy’.
He added: ‘The country stands to forfeit growth and jobs linked to emerging technologies, materials and treatment processes, while policymakers allocate scarce resources without a sufficient and robust evidence base to guide them.’
The Dental Schools Council had previously warned that the dental academic workforce was falling into crisis.
Oral health inequalities
The report said the decline had reduced the UK’s capacity to develop and test approaches to oral health and address persistent inequalities.
It stated: ‘New clinical and public health approaches to oral health are needed more than ever, with progress on improving oral health stalling and even reversing and inequalities remaining stubborn.’
Professor Chris Vernazza, chair of the Dental and Oral Health Task and Finish Group and head of the School of Dental Sciences at Newcastle University, said: ‘We hope our recommendations, agreed by named action owners, show we are committed to doing things differently.
‘Making the system more flexible and reliable for oral health researchers will pay dividends not only in retention of researchers in the workforce, but in the diversity of the workforce of registrant groups and demographics, which will strengthen the quality of oral health research in the UK.’
The group developed the sub-report with contributions from stakeholders across oral health research, education and clinical practice.
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