Associate Postgraduate Dental Dean for Foundation TrainingNHS

Job summary

An opportunity has arisen for appointment to the role of Associate Postgraduate Dental Dean for Foundation Training within the North West.

The post holder provides senior educational leadership for Dental Foundation Training and associated foundation-level dental education programmes across the North West of England, including programme development, quality management, trainee support, faculty development and assurance of training standards.

The post holder will have experience of and commitment to Dental Foundation Training, with a primary focus on this programme and related foundation-level dental education within the regional portfolio. Working with the Postgraduate Dental Dean and key system partners, they will support strategic development, national reform, innovation and operational policy across the North West, ensuring Dental Foundation Training supports NHS priorities and reflects current and future dental contract reform.

Main duties of the job

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead the provision of Dental Foundation Training in the North West of England.
• Lead regional implementation and operational oversight of the Early Years Dental Training curriculum and associated portfolio requirements, ensuring consistency across one-year Foundation-only and two-year JDFCT pathways.
• Provide senior oversight of JDFCT/Early Years pathways across dental practice, community, hospital and DCT-equivalent settings, ensuring effective coordination between Educational Supervisors, Training Programme Directors, Lead Employer and NHS England teams.
• Participate in strategic planning for Dental Foundation Training at national level.
• Support the development of specialised skills and wider educational opportunities relevant to Dental Foundation Training.
• Develop and evaluate an effective Dental Foundation Training study programme mapped to the Early Years curriculum and aligned with the Dental Gold Guide.
• Lead the process for the appointment of Training Programme Directors and Educational Supervisors.
• Develop and maintain robust processes to ensure appointed training practices meet required standards for the learning environment, educational provision, supervision and quality.
• Support the development, review and ongoing support of Educational Supervisors and Training Programme Directors.

Job description

The role is line managed by, and is professionally accountable to, the Postgraduate Dental Dean. The duties listed in the job description are not intended to be exhaustive. The post holder will carry out any other duties as may reasonably be required by their line manager.

You can find further details about the job, organisational structure, recruitment profile, expected outcomes and benefits information in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

About us

NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.

If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.

Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.

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