Sir, your article on the need to consider ways in which training might adapt to requirements of newer graduates1 is a core focus of Health Education England's Advancing Dental Care (ADC) Education & Training Review.

The Review was commissioned to develop a dental education and training infrastructure that supplies a dental workforce with the skills to respond to the changing oral health needs of patients and services.

The first phase of the ADC Review received a wealth of feedback on the possible future structure of dental training, receiving support in principle from many organisations and individuals. This included a call for flexibility in pre- and post-registration training pathways to facilitate workforce training adjustments, alongside more opportunities for part-time training and lifelong career development to improve job satisfaction and encourage retention in the later stages of their careers.

The flexible training agenda remains central to HEE's work to support trainees. As we plan for the future workforce, we are hearing from trainees across many professions on the need for training structures to support non-linear careers, flexible working and career breaks. Recent initiatives for junior doctors in training have successfully demonstrated the popularity of less than full time and flexible training models and we need to build on that experience to the benefit of dental trainees. Phase II of the ADC Review is exploring how the dental training infrastructure can enable a flexible and adaptable workforce through our investment in educating and training new and current staff.

The ADC Review is currently undertaking an engagement phase with a broad range of stakeholders to gather views and ideas on models for education and training of dental teams in the future. This includes local engagement events which will be taking place through HEE Local Offices over the next few months. There is also an email address (advancingdentistry@hee.nhs.uk) for those wishing to give individual feedback.

From January 2020, HEE will be piloting a number of training models to strengthen the flexibility and appropriateness of education and training that enables dentists and DCPs to refresh and gain specific skills linked to identified priorities.

The piloting phase will be evaluated in 2021 to understand what type of models support flexible training models and portfolio careers. Updates on HEE's ADC Review programme can be found on the ADC webpage at: https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/advancing-dental-care/advancing-dental-care-phase-ii.