Supervised toothbrushing for children to prevent tooth decay
Source: gov.uk (2025-03-07)

Programme will reach up to 600,000 children in most deprived areas.

- National programme rolled out for 3 to 5 year olds in early years settings - including nurseries and primary schools - in most deprived areas of England
- Government also agrees ground-breaking partnership with Colgate which will see more than 23 million toothbrushes and toothpastes donated to support the programme
- Programme is latest step in government’s Plan for Change (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/plan-for-change) to give children the best start in life and prevent ill health
Children in the most deprived areas of England will get access to a programme to help protect them from tooth decay, the government has announced today.

The supervised toothbrushing programme will be rolled out in early years settings and primary schools, with funding available from April, helping hundreds of thousands of children aged between 3 and 5 years old to develop positive brushing habits.

The scheme - a manifesto commitment - will be launched in collaboration with Colgate-Palmolive who are providing free Colgate toothbrushes, toothpaste and educational materials to continue good work at home.

This government inherited a children’s oral health crisis. The most common reason children aged 5 to 9 being are admitted to hospital is to have treatment for decayed teeth. Latest data shows 1 in 5 children aged 5 have experienced tooth decay in England, with higher rates of up to 1 in 3 in more deprived areas.

The scheme will help tackle these levels of poor health by ensuring they get the support they need to learn positive habits and prevent tooth decay - in turn avoiding related illness and poor health later in life.

To deliver the scheme, the government is investing a total of £11 million in local authorities across England to 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.

To support the scheme, the government has also agreed an innovative partnership with Colgate-Palmolive, which has generously committed to donate over 23 million toothbrushes and toothpastes over the next 5 years. It is also providing educational materials and a public-facing children’s oral health campaign supporting the NHS, developed with its experience of global oral health education.

The partnership is grounded in the shared mission and commitment between the government and Colgate-Palmolive to advance the oral health of the nation, by reducing the inequalities in oral health and ensuring access to oral health education for every child across the country.

Together, the resources will reach up to 600,000 children each year and provide families with the support they need to ensure positive behaviours continue at home and over the school holidays.

The launch is part of the government’s mission to give every child the best start in life and rebuild our health care system through the Plan for Change. The government is also driving forward action to fundamentally reform the NHS dental sector, having recently announced the rollout of an extra 700,000 urgent dental appointments nationwide.

Health Minister Stephen Kinnock said:

It is shocking that a third of 5 year olds in the most deprived areas have experience of tooth decay - something we know can have a lifelong impact on their health.

It’s why we’re delivering supervised toothbrushing to young children and families who are most in need of support as part of our wider plans to revive the oral health of the nation. This includes providing 23 million free toothbrushes and toothpastes through our partnership with Colgate-Palmolive to reach up to 600,000 children each year.

We’re already rolling out 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments for those who need treatment, but by focusing on prevention we can help children have the best start in life.

On top of this, we will reform the dental contract to get dentists providing more NHS work as we fundamentally reform the sector through our Plan for Change so it is there for patients once again.

Colgate-Palmolive’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Noel Wallace, said:

At Colgate-Palmolive, we believe every child deserves the chance to have a healthier smile and brighter future. We’re thrilled that Colgate and our team in the UK have been chosen to partner with the government to help improve children’s oral health across the country - it’s an incredibly important initiative given the current levels of tooth decay in children.

Our global programme Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures (https://www.colgate.com/en-gb/oral-health-education/our-commitment)® (BSBF) is among the most far-reaching and successful children’s oral health initiatives in the world. With long-standing partnerships with governments, schools and communities, BSBF has reached approximately 1.8 billion children and their families since 1991 across 100 countries with free oral health education and free dental screenings.

In the UK, we’ve been running Colgate BSBF since 2014 and are extremely proud to have reached over 18 million children across the nation with oral health education and donations of essential health and hygiene products.

With the launch of the supervised brushing scheme, this partnership will be able to make a real impact in preventing tooth decay and ensuring brighter futures for generations to come. We want all children, regardless of needs or circumstances, to be fully equipped with the information and tools they need to keep improving their oral health every day.

The scheme is being rolled out in collaboration with the Department for Education and follows the latest tranche of measures to make government-funded childcare more affordable and accessible to the most disadvantaged families.

Early years providers such as primary schools and nurseries are required to promote good oral health among attending children, and supervised toothbrushing is a way of achieving that aim.

From April, new rules will protect working families from facing high additional charges on top of their entitled childcare hours and providers will begin to benefit from a 45% uplift in early years pupil premium funding, to make sure the most disadvantaged children can access the early years education they need.

Early Education Minister, Stephen Morgan, said:

Through our Plan for Change, this government is working hard to break the unfair link between background and opportunity, to ensure tens of thousands more children are school ready every year.

We have 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.

Jason Wong, Chief Dental Officer for England, said:

Toothbrushing twice daily with a fluoride toothpaste remains one of the best defences against tooth decay and a long list of preventable oral health issues. This is why we’re thrilled that the government is working with the NHS to expand access to pivotal supervised toothbrushing programmes in schools.

Having strong healthy teeth can have a hugely positive impact on a child’s life. If you’re concerned about your child’s oral health, you can find helpful guidance on taking care of children’s teeth (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-teeth-and-gums/taking-care-of-childrens-teeth/) on the NHS website or through your local authority - and as a reminder to parents, all children have free dental care available through the NHS (https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/who-is-entitled-to-free-nhs-dental-treatment-in-england/).

Supervised toothbrushing is a proven, evidence-based health intervention, and is expected to deliver measurable improvements to children’s oral health and reductions in oral health inequalities from between 2 and 3 years after launch.

The rollout is expected to save the NHS millions of pounds that would otherwise be spent on treating dental disease in children, including preventing hospital admissions that cost the NHS around £1,600 per person.

Every £1 spent on supervised toothbrushing is expected to save £3 in avoided treatment costs - amounting to over £34 million over the next 5 years that can instead be spent on treating other patients.

Data published last week showed more than 49,000 young people under 19 were admitted to hospital for tooth extraction in the financial year ending 2024.

Alongside the launch today, the government has confirmed that, following public consultation last year, it is going ahead with the expansion of community water fluoridation across the north east of England (https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/community-water-fluoridation-expansion-in-the-north-east-of-england).

Water fluoridation is the process of adding fluoride to public water supplies to prevent tooth decay. Around 1 in 10 people in England currently have fluoride added to their drinking water supplies.

The findings of all health monitoring reports since 2014 consistently show that water fluoridation is an effective and safe public health measure to reduce the prevalence and severity of tooth decay and reduce dental health inequalities.

The expansion of water fluoridation in the north east is expected to reach an additional 1.6 million people and reduce the number of young children admitted to hospital for the removal of decayed teeth.

Councillor David Fothergill, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board said:

We are pleased to see new funding for supervised toothbrushing, which is an evidence-based and cost-effective intervention proven to improve children’s oral health. This investment will help address health inequalities by supporting children in the most deprived areas to develop positive brushing habits, preventing tooth decay and reducing the need for hospital treatment.

This funding builds on the excellent work already being done by many councils up and down the country to improve children’s oral health. The flexibility in how the funding can be used is particularly appreciated, allowing councils to tailor programmes to best meet local needs. Councils are committed to playing their part in improving children’s oral health and reducing inequalities.

Jason Elsom, Chief Executive of children’s charity Parentkind, said:

As a father to a blended family of 8 children, I know how hard it can be to get children to clean their teeth well, regularly and consistently, and this is especially true when family life can be so hectic.

It’s 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.

Dr Urshla Devalia, spokesperson for the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD), said:

At last, we will see the dial shift on children’s oral health in England. BSPD has been advocating for the importance of a preventative approach to address the crisis in children’s oral health for years.

Intervening now with a supervised toothbrushing scheme, plus community water fluoridation programmes, are initiatives proven to deliver beneficial oral health outcomes that will pay for themselves several fold in the future.

We are excited to see this commitment to improving children’s oral health, but there is a lot of work to do, and BSPD is rolling up its sleeves to play its part. This is the decisive action we have been pushing for.

Anna Gardiner, Deputy Director - Health and Wellbeing at the National Children’s Bureau, said:

Despite improvements over the past 20 years, too many young children in England start school with tooth decay. Poor oral health can have lasting impacts on their health, wellbeing and attainment, and a significant risk factor is not getting into the habit of brushing teeth twice per day with fluoride toothpaste.

So, we welcome the government’s plans to introduce a supervised brushing programme in early years settings, and we look forward to seeing its impact, particularly for those growing up in deprived areas who disproportionately suffer from poor oral health.

June O’Sullivan OBE, CEO, London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), said:

Children’s oral health in the UK is in crisis, and for too long, it’s been the silent epidemic no one talks about. Tooth decay doesn’t just cause pain - it disrupts sleep, eating, learning and the ability to speak clearly, which is crucial for a child’s development and confidence. Unfortunately, the impact is felt most by disadvantaged children which is why this government-backed supervised toothbrushing programme is very much welcomed.

At LEYF, we’ve seen first-hand how daily brushing in nurseries transforms children’s oral health and wellbeing. Scaling this nationally will give hundreds of thousands of children the best start in life. While it’s not our role to replace parents in this responsibility, we are committed to supporting our LEYF families. This programme will help educate parents on the importance of oral health and a healthy diet, ensuring good habits are built at home as well as in nursery.

Background information

For more information about Colgate-Palmolive (https://www.colgatepalmolive.co.uk/), visit the company’s website.

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral found in soil, food and drink and also in drinking water supplies, in varying amounts. In some parts of England the level of fluoride in the public water supply already reaches the target concentration of water fluoridation schemes (one milligram per litre (1mg/l)), sometimes expressed as one part per million (1ppm)), as a result of the geology of the area. In other areas the fluoride concentration has been adjusted to reach this level as part of a fluoridation scheme.