The role of dental ethics in the Safe Practitioner Framework (2023): a dental educator’s personal viewpoint

From September 2025, dental education in the UK will follow a new curriculum. Called the ‘Safe Practitioner Framework,’ it represents a departure from the previous curricula in three key ways: 1) a shift from the previous developmental goal of becoming a ‘safe beginner’ to that of a ‘safe practitioner,’ 2) creating a set of explicit behavioural learning outcomes in conjunction with the existing knowledge and clinical based learning outcomes, and 3) the addition of contemporary issues into the formal curriculum, including equality, diversity and inclusion topics, mental health and wellbeing, and sustainability. Considering that there has been ‘reliance on professional regulation as shorthand for the ethical development of students’ (Patrick 2017, p. e114) in dental education, this paper will offer a perspective on how dental ethics are represented in the new curriculum and what it means for aspiring and future dental professions in the UK. In this opinion paper, it will be argued that the ethics of care philosophy appears to underpin these curricular changes, though it is not named explicitly. The lack of formal engagement with ethics of care means that students and educators alike may be ill-prepared for the ethical dilemmas, moral distress and pedagogic challenges the new curriculum will create.