Oxfordshire Oral Health Improvement

The Oral Health Improvement Team is proud to be commissioned by Oxfordshire County Council to deliver and promote oral health programmes and education services to ever more communities.

The team co-ordinate, facilitate and support a range of evidence-based interventions to reduce oral health inequalities and promote better oral health.

The service creates tooth-friendly environments through training, local accreditation programmes and partnership alliances. As well as successfully working with early year’s settings, schools, children and adults with special needs and /or living in care settings, the team work with other community groups for example travellers, homeless and other marginalised people.  Please contact the team for more information.

Oral health is everyone’s responsibility, therefore training is available to health and non- health professionals.  Sessions are tailored to meet the requirements of specific areas e.g health visiting, school health nurses, teachers and many voluntary sector areas. The team will provide the dates and venues of planned sessions throughout the year or will discuss bespoke events according to requirements.

Accreditation of early years settings, primary and special schools, is delivered through the Healthy Smiles programme.

Meet the Team

Resources to Loan

Our very popular resources can support you in exploring oral health with children, families, patients, service users and work colleagues alike. A range of items provide key information around taking care of our teeth and mouths. There are also many activities which provide a hands-on opportunity to learn about dental and oral care.

Our resources which are available to borrow, are listed within the Oral Health Resources catalogue below, along with details of how and when these can be booked out – free of charge. Please also read the terms and conditions, before you borrow.

The resources are located in Bicester (OX26 4SU), and once booked you would need to travel to collect and drop off.

Training

Oral Health training is available to both health and non-health teams, and is tailored to suit each group:

  • Children and Young Person
  • Older and Vulnerable Adults
  • School Health Nurses
  • Health Visitors
  • Teachers
  • Additional Needs Teams
  • Care Home Teams
  • Early Years Teams
  • Looked After Children Teams
  • Voluntary Sector

A range of resources are provided as part of the training, such as: leaflets, posters and documents, as well as a certificate of attendance.

Sessions are designed according to the area of work and are often run during a team meeting or during allocated professional development time. Brief follow up sessions can then be provided to update and refresh people’s knowledge. Every session is evaluated by those attending to ensure continuous improvement.

For queries to training please contact ohimp.oxfordshire@cds-cic.nhs.uk

Healthy Smiles

The Healthy Smiles award programme supports services working with young and primary school children to adopt tooth-friendly practices. By implementing the six Healthy Smiles standards, each participating setting helps to;

  • increase the dentist attendance of children in their care
  • promote positive oral health messages to the children, staff and parents
  • reduce the frequency of sugary food and drinks given to the children

Free training is provided by the Oral Health Improvement team to support the staff teams taking part in the award. In some settings the Healthy Smiles + accreditation standards will require supervised tooth brushing or a food audit to be completed.

 

For queries relating to Health Smiles programme, please contact the team on ohimp.oxfordshire@cds-cic.nhs.uk

Oral Health Toolkit for Carers (Level 1)

The Oral Health Toolkit for carers has been designed by OHIMP Oxfordshire in partnership with Oxfordshire County Council. This toolkit must be completed by all staff who wish to move onto level 2 oral health Training.

Click here to view the Oral health toolkit

Oral Health Training for Care Homes Level 2

Oral Health Level 2 training can be completed by all staff who have successfully completed the level 1 Oral Health Toolkit for Carers.

The training is usually delivered online and last approximately 90 minutes. The training session will raise awareness of the importance of daily mouth care as well as practical advice for those people that are dependent or need assistance in oral care techniques. It will provide carers with the knowledge and ability to plan and deliver daily mouth care in any setting including supported living, care homes and domiciliary care. It will provide your managers and staff with the tools for being CQC compliant in oral care as well as carers being more confident in delivering oral care. We also provide training around oral care and dementia (challenging behaviour) and palliative/end of life oral care.

 

Who is it for?

Our training packages are adaptable depending on the requirement of the care being provided:

  • Residential and dementia care homes for the elderly
  • nursing homes with complex oral health needs
  • learning disability organisations
  • domiciliary care providers
  • supported living providers

To find out more, please contact the Oxfordshire team at; ohimp.oxfordshire@cds-cic.nhs.uk

Lifelong Smiles (LLS) Level 3

“Achieving Optimum Oral Healthcare In Residential Settings.”

CDS has developed an accredited programme called ‘Lifelong Smiles’ (LLS). This is available to care home settings in Oxfordshire. By agreeing to participate, the care homes would need to meet a set of standards based on the NICE guidelines for oral health in care homes.

We invite care homes to improve their delivery of oral health care within their facility. This can include; improving the personal dental care a resident receives, an awareness of the different needs and wants for each resident, implementing dietary changes across the homes provision of snacks and drinks and making sure each resident is registered with a local dentist and attends when necessary.

As many employees as possible will receive the training and will be aware of the standards so they understand what is to be achieved. Then two staff members will be in charge of collaborating evidence and initiating any necessary changes. CDS will then follow up after the initial training to discuss care plans, menus and any other issues.

We will support the home to work towards achieving the standards and monitor good practice. Once all evidence is collected and the standards have been met, the homes will then receive their award certificate to be displayed in the home.

Care homes not taking part in the accreditation scheme can also access our free training for staff (level 2)

For queries related to LLS (Lifelong Smiles) please contact, ohimp.oxfordshire@cds-cic.nhs.uk

Safeguarding

Community Dental Services CIC (CDS) recognizes that the dental team, including OHI employees, has a statutory duty of care to all patients which includes ensuring that safeguarding arrangements are in place. All employees need to be alert to the essential requirements in their role and responsibility with regards to safeguarding.
All employees complete annual safeguarding training and each area has a DSL too. All employees are aware of the safeguarding policy (2021). The purpose of this policy is to clarify the roles and responsibilities of CDS employees in promoting the safety and wellbeing of children, young people and vulnerable adults at risk of abuse. e.g. understanding the potential indicators of abuse and neglectfamiliarity with local safeguarding procedures, when and how to instruct an
Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA), who to contact for further advice, how to refer matters of concern as well as the principles of patient confidentiality and information sharing.
In Oxfordshire the members of the OHI team also complete local safeguarding training through the Oxfordshire safeguarding boards for children and adults. Team members are aware of their roles and local safeguarding procedures when working with children, families and vulnerable adults within Oxfordshire’s community.