The Midcounties Co-operative: Improving Dental Health in Oxfordshire

The Midcounties Co-operative operates six businesses in Food, Travel, Pharmacy, Funerals, Energy and Childcare. Its heartland is the West Midlands and surrounding counties.

One of the key social issues in the local area identified by the company was health with both adults and children in deprived areas less likely to access preventative NHS services than those in more affluent areas. Its partnership with Oxfordshire PCT set out to help improve the dental health of children in geographically identified areas in Oxfordshire. NHS dental health services are a clear example of differential access between less affluent areas and others. An average of 72% of children in Oxfordshire see NHS dentists during a year, with this dropping to 58.6% and 44% in the more deprived areas of Blackbird Leys and Banbury respectively.

Working with Oxfordshire PCT Midcounties Coop developed an initiative to improve the dental health of children within disadvantaged areas. Using the Coop team's existing expertise to provide messages to school age children on recycling an information pack and delivery session for young people was developed which was delivered by Midcounties volunteers. All material was consistent with those given by dental professionals and contained ‘NHS’ branding and volunteers were trained by the Public Health and Oral Promotion Team.

One of the core KPIs for the project was the number of children accessing NHS dental services. This project contributed to a rise in the overall figure from 72% to 74.3%; from 58.6% to 77.4% in Blackbird Leys; and 44% to 67.5% in Banbury. The Oxfordshire pilot is now being extended to other counties beginning with Gloucestershire in 2011.