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”.
But the government has not said if any of this funding will be available to cover staffing in schools, with leaders fearing an additional burden.
The Department of Health and Social Care simply stated that councils will “deploy supervised toothbrushing in schools and nurseries that voluntarily sign up”.
“Local authorities will work to identify early years settings in target areas and encourage them to enrol.”
But when asked what the “target areas” were, the DHSC did not respond.
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.”
‘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.”
