Nuffield Trust

Figures suggest nearly six hundred dental practices in England have left the NHS since twenty seventeen.

The number of practices has gone up by four hundred in that period to around ten thousand one hundred, but the Nuffield Trust says those offering services on the health service has dropped nearly ten percent to fifty-five percent.

Mark Dayan from the independent health charity has told Times Radio what he thinks the problem is.

The dental contract which pays dentists, it doesn't reflect how much money a particular type of patient costs very well, doesn't reward prevention.

It represents a system built around age-based transitions, or, as one young person put it... like being on death row, counting down the days to turning 18.

The Nuffield Trust has found that care-experienced people are seven times more likely to die before the age of 25, prompting the UK government to launch a review into premature deaths of care leavers.

But are the problems and solutions already staring us right in the face? Today's episode of Let's Talk Social Work is delving into why society is failing care leavers at such a critical juncture in adulthood and, crucially, how we end this cliff edge, which has fast become a stain upon our society.

To help me unpack this topic, I'm joined by members of Shared Lives Plus.

Much, though, remains unclear and the pressure is on to deliver real change ahead of the next general election.

Can he do it? Well, let's talk now to Natasha Currie, Deputy Director of Policy at the Nuffield Trust, who leads the trust's work on social care and has extensive knowledge of approaches taken by other countries identifying lessons to be learned for England.

And Shane Devlin, now Chief Executive at NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB.

and previously at the Southern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland, where health and social care have been organised within a single system for more than 50 years.

There's some value in that as well, but it's not the panacea and it's simply putting two organisations together won't create brilliance.

But it certainly helps to have everyone around the table.

And Natasha, does that ring true with you? You at the Nuffield Trust have been looking at approaches taken further afield, haven't you, in Japan and Germany.

What lessons do you think could be brought into focus here?