Dental Epidemiology Fieldwork

The Service shall carry out dental epidemiological surveys for Leicester City, Leicestershire & Rutland. This shall require the Service Provider to complete clinical examinations on an agreed population, usually children, in settings located within Leicester City, Leicestershire & Rutland. These settings will be agreed with the Councils, dependant on the requirements of the DPHIP.

The Service Provider shall be required to liaise with the relevant settings and work with them to encourage participation in the surveys and in obtaining consent from parents, carers and individuals (as required). The national programme provides guidance on how consent should be obtained . This may involve the Service Provider visiting the settings and communication with governors, parents, teachers, carers and managers and this is inclusive within the value of the Contract.

Suitable clinical examiner(s) shall be identified by the Service Provider, along with sufficient support staff for administration, recording and data entry. Staff carrying out clinical examinations must be operating within their scope of practice as determined by the General Dental Council.

The fieldwork team shall be familiar with, and comply with the standards and procedures laid down in the relevant National Protocol when it is released, including the use of specified equipment. This shall include but not be limited to:

• compliance with the sampling process
• approach to specified target populations
• gaining of consent
• examination method
• application of measures
• data entry and storage
• back-up and handling of data
• The provider must ensure staff carrying out clinical examinations have attended training and been successfully calibrated
• Complete the fieldwork in accordance with the DPHIP protocols
• Ensure appropriate cross infection control policy and procedures are in place
• Carry out sampling of local area, in accordance with protocol and provide the administrative support required to enable the fieldwork to take place in accordance with national protocols
• Liaise with and book appointments at settings
• Carry out survey dental examinations and record findings in accordance with protocol
• Carry out data cleaning

The fieldwork team shall make the anonymised survey data available to the PHE epidemiology coordinator within the required timescales. The process shall be planned, executed and completed in the nationally agreed required time frames.

The Service shall provide interpretation services for the sample population whose first language is not English and who require interpretation.

The initial Service requirement is to provide the DPHIP surveys. However, it is recognised that this may require changing over the lifetime of the Contract following review of oral health needs assessment and analysis of data. The Councils may require the Service Provider to supplement the DPHIP surveys,(e.g. additional samples) to meet local needs, In these circumstances the Counci