Specialist accountancy for associates, practice owners and squat founders in London — from a team that works exclusively with dentists.
The short version. Health service dentistry in London is commissioned by five integrated care boards — North West, North Central, North East, South East and South West London. Income comes from UDA-based GDS/PDS contracts, with contract payments administered by the NHS Business Services Authority. Practices are inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and dentists are in the NHS Pension Scheme for England and Wales, administered by the NHS Business Services Authority. We work with London dentists remotely, and only with dentists.
From single-surgery practices in the suburbs to multi-site private and specialist groups in town, London dentistry spans every model — and the highest practice values in the UK.
London's practice market is the widest in the UK: single-surgery NHS practices in the outer boroughs, private and specialist referral clinics in the centre, and corporate-owned sites in between. Because the models differ so much, the numbers are not comparable — a central London private list and an outer-borough UDA contract are two different businesses that happen to share a job title.
Two costs push London practices away from the national pattern and both land straight on profit: staff pay and premises. Rateable values are assessed by the Valuation Office Agency and billed by your London borough, and central rents bear little relation to the rest of England. Working across more than one practice is easy to do here, which means more than one income stream and often more than one pay arrangement to reconcile at the year end.
London is the one place in the UK where your commissioner changes as you cross town. Five ICBs cover the capital, so two practices ten miles apart can sit under different commissioners with different contract histories. If you own or are buying more than one site, establish which ICB each contract sits under before you compare their performance.
NHS dentistry in England runs on UDA contracts commissioned by ICBs, with delivery tested annually and under-delivery clawed back — so contract performance is a financial number, not just a compliance one. Practices are regulated by the CQC, and practice purchases here need CQC registration planned into the timetable. Our benchmarking, due diligence and clawback analysis are built around exactly this system.
King's College London at Guy's Hospital, Barts and The London, and the UCL Eastman Dental Institute for postgraduate training is in the city, which means foundation trainees and newly qualified associates locally, and a hospital referral route on the doorstep. Dental Foundation Training in England is run by NHS England's Workforce, Training and Education directorate — your first year out is a training placement, not simply a job, and it is taxed and pensioned differently from self-employed associate work that follows it.
"How much is my dental practice worth" has a different answer in England than elsewhere in the UK, because the payment system your income comes from is different — UDA-based GDS/PDS contracts, with contract payments administered by the NHS Business Services Authority. A valuation built on English UDA assumptions will misread a Scottish or Northern Irish practice, and a Welsh one whose activity measures have been rebased by contract reform. Our valuation guide explains how the nation changes the answer.
No, and it is worth being honest about why. Everything runs remotely — video and phone around clinical hours, records and approvals handled securely online — which is how most of our clients prefer it: no afternoons lost to accountant visits. What you gain by widening the search past your postcode is a firm that already knows UDA-based GDS/PDS contracts, the NHS Pension Scheme for England and Wales and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) without being told.
Five integrated care boards — North West, North Central, North East, South East and South West London. Income is earned through UDA-based GDS/PDS contracts, with contract payments administered by the NHS Business Services Authority, and practices are inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
More than the address. In England you are in the NHS Pension Scheme for England and Wales, administered by the NHS Business Services Authority, you pay UK income tax rates and bands, your practice is inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and health service income comes from UDA-based GDS/PDS contracts, with contract payments administered by the NHS Business Services Authority. A cross-border move changes the pension scheme, the payment mechanism, the regulator and often the tax arithmetic at the same time, so it is worth a conversation before the start date rather than after it.
No — we work remotely with dentists across England and the whole UK, by video and phone, scheduled around clinical hours, with everything shared securely online. In practice that means faster responses than a local generalist, from a team that only does dentistry.
Yes — pre-offer appraisals, financial due diligence, funding introductions and structure advice, built around how health service dentistry actually works in England. Send us the sales pack before you offer, not after.
Your tax return filed early, a monthly set-aside figure so January is a non-event, your superannuation reconciled against actual pensionable earnings, honest incorporation advice with the NHS Pension Scheme for England and Wales in the picture, and unlimited advice through the year — all for a fixed monthly fee.
A free, no-obligation conversation about your situation. If we can't add value, we'll tell you.
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