It has been an honour to chair this year’s conference. Thank you all for attending, it really is invaluable for members of LDCs from across the UK to get together and network and I hope you felt the same.

I am grateful for the support from the Agenda Committee, BDA, GDPC, my own LDC, our speakers and the event sponsors and exhibitors.

We discussed the current position surrounding dental contract reform and my thanks go to Shiv Pabary, Chair, GDPC for his update and to Stephen Kinnock MP, Minister of State for Care who joined virtually to address Conference.

I chose resilience as a theme aiming to address this incredibly important aspect of our working lives, and with their presentations invited speakers Jason Wong, James Foster, John Lewis and Graeme Foreman provided advice to help us recognise the symptoms of burnout and consider how to build resilience, develop the ability to bounce back from difficulties and adapt to change. I was delighted Olympian Sir Steve Redgrave OBE was able to speak to us during the evening where he shared insights of overcoming challenges in his sporting world. A real highlight!

In keeping with the Conference’s keynote theme on resilience we debated and passed motions tackling the risks facing the profession and the millions we treat.

Thursday 5 – Friday 6 June 2025
Hilton Newcastle Gateshead 

Dear Colleagues,

I am very much looking forward to welcoming you all to Newcastle for our Annual Conference of Local Dental Committees. I would like to say a big thank you to the Agenda Committee and the entire team at the BDA who have played a massive part in setting an agenda and finding a venue which I am certain will make for a magnificent conference.

The first day will be dedicated to resilience and we have a number of speakers to address this incredibly important aspect of our working lives. Some from within the field of dentistry and some from outside providing a ‘non-dental ‘perspective. Friday will be dedicated to motions, and I would urge open discussion. If you disagree with something, please stand up and tell us why!

The Thursday night black tie event is always a highlight of the dental calendar and I look forward to welcoming Sir Steve Redgrave to give us some insights into how resilience fitted into his professional world.

Thursday 5 – Friday 6 June 2025
Hilton Newcastle Gateshead 

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you are keeping well, and I look forward to welcoming you to the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead on the 5 and 6th of June 2025.

With a change in Government, I am sure we were all hoping for a bit more progress in the direction of travel of dentistry than has materialised. However, it is important we keep working together and build on last year’s Conference theme of ‘What good NHS Dentistry looks like’.

Resilience…be it our own or that of the workforce has never been so important, and we will be exploring this at this year’s Conference to help address the stress and strains we face on a daily basis. We’ll be hearing from some excellent speakers from within the profession but will also have input from speakers from different fields to help make it an invaluable couple of days.