The government has said its supervised toothbrushing programme will be rolled out to schools in the “most deprived” areas of England, but has not named the areas that will take part.
£11 million in funding will be available to councils from April, helping “hundreds of thousands of children aged between three and five years old to develop positive brushing habits”.
Funding will not be handed directly to schools to help with staffing costs, with leaders fearing an additional burden. But the government told Schools Week councils will have the option of helping schools with staffing issues. It will also fund training and equipment.
The Department of Health and Social Care stated that councils will “deploy supervised toothbrushing in schools and nurseries that voluntarily sign up”. This would take place in “target areas”.
Asked what the “target areas” were, the DHSC said it would be up to councils to identify volunteer schools, but these would be in the 20 per cent most deprived neighbourhoods.
The government has also announced it has agreed a deal with Colgate to donate more than 23 million toothbrushes and toothpastes to support the programme.
Early education minister Stephen Morgan said the new government had “already started urgent work to increase the affordability and accessibility of high-quality early years and extend early learning support, but we know school-readiness goes beyond what is taught in a classroom.
“By supporting the youngest children with vital life and development skills, more teachers will be able to focus on what they do best – teach.”
Health minister Stephen Kinnock added: “It is shocking that a third of five-year-olds in the most deprived areas have experience of tooth decay – something we know can have a lifelong impact on their health.
“It’s why we’re delivering supervised toothbrushing to young children and families who are most in need of support as part of our wider plans to revive the oral health of the nation.”
‘Stop loading expectations on schools’
But NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said we “cannot keep loading increasing expectations on schools…Nor can we keep looking to schools to fix all of society’s ills.
“Most people would see tooth brushing as a basic part of parenting, and we must be careful not to shift what is ultimately a parental responsibility onto the shoulders of schools.”
However, Jason Elsom, chief executive of Parentkind, said it was “important that we get the basics right for our children, and things like poor personal or oral hygiene can impact a child’s early years, and beyond.
“But children all develop in different ways, and at a different pace, and so I commend this initiative to help every child understand the importance of oral hygiene at an early age.”
This story has been updated. The DHSC originally said funding would not be available for staffing, but then told us councils would be free to use it for that purpose.
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