NHS contracts
What each NHS contract near you is worth a year, its price per unit of dental activity, how much of this year's target it has delivered so far, and how many NHS patients it has seen.
NHS contracts, for practices in England
What every NHS dental contract near you is paid, and how far through its year it is.
The price per unit of dental activity each contract near you is paid, what it is worth a year, how much of this year's target it has delivered so far, and how many NHS patients it has seen. Read from the NHS Business Services Authority's own files, for every contract within your radius.
The free month includes the NHS contract comparison for your area. No card. The free audit shows your Google picture, with no email.
Read from the official records
- NHS Business Services Authoritycontract values and delivery
- Care Quality Commissionwhich practice holds each contract
Practice Radar is independent and is not endorsed by any of these organisations. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Across England
The same work, paid differently a mile apart.
£36.73what the median NHS dental contract in England is paid per unit of dental activity, 2026/27
£3.15the median gap in that price between two contracts within a mile of each other
1 in 3neighbouring pairs paid £5 or more apart for the same unit of work
35.6%of England's commissioned units sit in contracts running below 90% of pace, April to June 2026
Source: Practice Radar analysis of NHS Business Services Authority contract data, June 2026 file, published September 2026: 5,660 NHS general dental contracts in England holding 1,000 or more units a year. No contract or provider is named. Read the full study.
A unit of dental activity, or UDA, is what an NHS contract is measured in: a check-up earns one, a crown twelve. The price per UDA is what the contract pays for a year divided by the units it must deliver, and it decides what every NHS course of treatment is worth to the practice. Most owners know their own. Very few know what the practice down the road is paid.
A worked example
The contracts around one practice.
An illustration with six invented practices. The names and figures below are made up for this page and are not read from any real area or from our demo, but the columns are exactly what the free month shows for your own.
| Contract holder | A year | Per UDA | Pace so far |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practice A (yours) | £412,000 | £36.20 | 94% |
| Practice B | £1,180,000 | £33.90 | 101% |
| Practice C | £865,000 | £38.40 | 97% |
| Practice D | £540,000 | £35.10 | 104% |
| Practice E | £398,000 | £40.60 | 89% |
| Practice F | £276,000 | £37.30 | 96% |
Invented figures, for illustration only. In the free month each row is a real contract within your radius, with the NHS Business Services Authority’s latest months. Pace is the units delivered since April against the share of the year’s target due by then.
Pace is a reading part way through the year, not a verdict on any practice. Monthly delivery varies, and a contract’s year is settled at its end.
For your own area
What the free month shows, from the first week.
Every NHS contract within your radius, matched to the practice that holds it through its CQC registration, with each figure as the NHS Business Services Authority publishes it.
Who owns each practice
The company behind each practice near you, the groups holding more than one, and every sale or change of control in the last two years, linked through each practice's own CQC registration. Companies are named, people are not.
CQC inspections
When CQC last inspected each practice and whether regulations were met on its five questions. How the CQC view works.
Where patients search
Every practice competing with yours on Google, the searches each one wins, and your position across the town, because the patients a contract cannot see still search.
Questions
Asked about the contracts.
What is a UDA?
A unit of dental activity is what an NHS dental contract in England is measured in. A band 1 course, such as a check-up, earns one. A band 2 course earns three, five or seven, depending on the work. A band 3 course, such as a crown, earns twelve. The price per UDA is what the contract pays for a year divided by the units it must deliver.
Since 1 April 2026 an urgent course no longer earns 1.2 UDAs. It earns an activity credit, turned into UDAs at the contract’s own UDA value: £60 for each urgent course within the number the contract must provide and £75 above it, or £75 a course where a contract has no required number. Contracts with a required number also receive a £15 fixed credit for each required course. Source: NHS England, NHS dentistry quality and payment reforms: contractual guidance, published 26 March 2026 and updated 29 July 2026.
Where do the figures come from?
The NHS Business Services Authority's open data on general dental contracts, read through its own portal: each contract's yearly value, its target in units, and what it delivers month by month.
Does it cover Scotland or Wales?
No. These are England's NHS dental contracts. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland pay NHS dentistry differently, and this does not read their systems.
Are people named?
Companies are named as the NHS publishes them. Where a contract is held by an individual dentist, the free month shows the contract and its figures against the practice, not the person.
See the contracts around you.
The free month builds your market map and the CQC records around your postcode, usually the same day. NHS contract values and owners follow with its first weekly reading, on the first Monday after you start. Or start with the free search audit, which shows your Google picture in one sitting.
Free first month · No card · Nothing starts when the month ends