More than 20,000 adapted oral health packs have now been distributed to children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) through All Together Smiling, Cheshire and Merseyside’s supervised toothbrushing programme, helping to make oral health support more accessible and inclusive for children across the region.
As part of its commitment to ensuring every child can benefit from the programme, All Together Smiling provides a range of support for children with SEND. This includes adapted toothbrushes and non-foaming, flavourless toothpaste to help children who may experience sensory sensitivities or other barriers to toothbrushing, and children receive the same items for use at home, helping to create consistency in their home environments.
The SEND offer forms part of the wider All Together Smiling programme, which continues to expand its reach across Cheshire and Merseyside. More than 16,400 children are now participating in the programme across 340 early years and primary school settings, representing 57% of eligible settings. The programme has also distributed more than 436,000 oral health packs containing a toothbrush, fluoride toothpaste and key oral health messages, helping children and families establish positive oral health habits from an early age.
Alongside supporting children with SEND in mainstream settings, the programme already works with a number of specialist SEND settings and is currently trialling a universal supervised toothbrushing offer specifically for SEND children and specialist settings.
Through dedicated training, resources and ongoing support, All Together Smiling works closely with participating settings to ensure staff feel confident supporting children with a wide range of additional needs, helping supervised toothbrushing become an accessible, inclusive and positive experience for every child.
Mrs Chidzley, Assistant Head at Brook Acre Community Primary School in Warrington, said:
Our supervised toothbrushing scheme has had a particularly positive impact on children with SEND. For some pupils, sensory sensitivities can make toothbrushing challenging, but taking part alongside their peers helps build curiosity, confidence and encourages engagement.
The support from All Together Smiling, including adapted toothbrushes and take-home packs, has been invaluable. Using the same products at school and at home provides important consistency for children who struggle with change.
We’ve seen children who were previously reluctant to brush their teeth become much more engaged and independent. One child, who initially refused to hold a toothbrush at all, now brushes with toothpaste independently as part of their daily routine, after gentle exposure and a phased approach to brushing. The progress has made a real difference both in school and at home.
All Together Smiling retains its original aim as an evidence-based supervised toothbrushing programme for children aged 2 to 7, offered to eligible settings within the 20% most deprived communities across Cheshire and Merseyside. For more information on the All Together Smiling programme, or to see if your setting is eligible to take part, contact the programme at [email protected].
