🏠About At Home Dental
At Home Dental is a unique dental service that delivers a suite of innovative and important dental programmes to local populations most at risk of poor oral health. These services are delivered in partnership with the NHS and local authorities, and include outreach in early years settings and even in the home.
To find out more about what At Home Dental can provide and their ethos for delivery, please visit their website At Home Dental or call 0808 169 4546.
🪥The Big Brush Club
The Big Brush Club is a national supervised toothbrushing programme for primary school and nursery-aged children. It is commissioned by NHS England and delivered by At Home Dental.
The programme equips early years providers with everything they need to deliver supervised toothbrushing sessions within the classroom. With a team of Oral Health Facilitators on hand to provide guidance and dental knowledge, and a comprehensive pack of engaging resources, the initiative also supports Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) guidelines.
for more information about the Big Brush Club look at their website
🤝Partnerships with Public Health
Though an NHS-commissioned service, an integral part of the set-up and ongoing delivery has been the close collaboration between At Home Dental and Public Health Teams in local authorities.
This partnership involves:
- Identifying priority settings based on need and the best available local data
- Advocating for participation in early years settings that are slow to sign up
- Using Torbay-level dental caries and tooth extraction data to highlight the need
- Gaining support through letters from the Director of Public Health and Elected Members
✅ As of January 2025, At Home Dental and Public Health had achieved 100% primary school sign-up in Torbay — the first area in the Southwest to reach this milestone.
🌍Programme Expansion Across Devon
As of January 2025, the Integrated Care Board (ICB) — which holds the At Home Dental contract — agreed to extend the programme to all schools and nurseries in Devon.
Previously, Phase 1 delivery had been restricted to early years settings within Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 1–6. The inclusion of IMD 7–10 reflects:
- The successful delivery of Phase 1
- The ongoing need for oral health promotion among children in Torbay
👧Reaching Underserved Groups
The original NHS At Home Dental contract did not specify certain cohorts of children who, according to local and national data, experience higher levels of poor oral health. These include:
- Children in care
- Pupils in Special Schools
- Pupil Referral Units (PRUs)
Public Health was keen to extend the programme to these groups and have worked with At Home Dental to expand the provision.
🤝 A Model for Multi-Agency Collaboration
The partnership between At Home Dental, Public Health, the ICB, and Children’s Services at Torbay Council is a strong example of how different parts of the healthcare system can work together to deliver and expand a valuable programme with significant population-level benefits.
đź“Ś Summary
- Provides information and resources about a current and developing health and wellbeing multi-agency partnership
- Creates a foundation for further engagement and collaboration with other partners delivering health promotion initiatives
- Demonstrates best practice in public health delivery through coordinated, data-driven action
