title: 'Healthy gums do matter': A case study of clinical leadership within primary dental care.
abstract: The Health and Social Care Act 2012 heralded wide reaching reforms intended to place clinicians at the heart of the health service. For NHS general dental practice, the conduits for this clinical leadership are the NHS England local professional networks. In Greater Manchester, the local professional network has developed and piloted a clinician led quality improvement project: 'Healthy Gums DO Matter, a Practitioner's Toolkit'. Used as a case study, the project highlighted the following facilitators to clinical leadership in dentistry: supportive environment; mentoring and transformational leadership; alignment of project goals with national policy; funding allowance; cross-boundary collaboration; determination; altruism; and support from wider academic and specialist colleagues. Barriers to clinical leadership identified were: the hierarchical nature of healthcare, territorialism and competing clinical commitments.
authors.affiliation: Dental Public Health.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: NHS England (GM).
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saleem
authors.affiliation: NHS England (GM).
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hawthorn
authors.affiliation: NHS England (GM).
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pealing
authors.affiliation: University Dental Hospital of Manchester, M15 6FH.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ashley
authors.affiliation: Public Health England, 3 Piccadilly Place, M1 3BN.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bridgman
mesh_terms: D003729:Dental Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003815:Dentists / Q000458:organization & administration; D005882:Gingival Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D013222:State Medicine; D006113:United Kingdom