Your NHS contract is worth six figures. You're tracking it in a spreadsheet updated quarterly.
Every NHS dental practice has a contract with a fixed annual UDA target — typically 5,000 to 20,000+ UDAs. Under-deliver and the NHS claws back money proportionally. Over-deliver and you get nothing extra. The contract year runs April to March, and the financial consequences of getting the pacing wrong are severe: clawbacks of £10,000 to £100,000+ are not unusual. Most practices track UDA performance quarterly, via their accountant, using data that's already weeks old. Your contract performance agent monitors delivery in real time, forecasts year-end position adjusted for holidays, staff absences, and seasonal variation, and alerts you when course correction is needed — not in March when it's too late.
What Your Agent Actually Does
Your agent monitors your NHS contract performance in real time — forecasting, alerting, and modelling scenarios so you never face an unexpected clawback.
Real-time UDA delivery tracking
Your agent maintains a running count of UDAs delivered against your annual target, broken down by month, by clinician, and by treatment band. You can see exactly where you are at any point in the contract year — not where you were six weeks ago.
Forecasts year-end position with adjustments
A straight-line projection isn't enough. Your agent adjusts for planned holidays, historical seasonal patterns (summer and December are typically lower), associate schedules, and known absences. The forecast shows where you'll actually land, not where a linear trend says you will.
Alerts when course correction is needed
If the forecast shows you're trending towards under-delivery, your agent alerts you early — with specifics. 'At current run-rate, you'll be 600 UDAs short by March. That's approximately £16,800 in clawback. You need an additional 75 UDAs per month to close the gap.'
Models scenarios for planning decisions
What happens if an associate reduces their days? What if you add a locum for two months? What if you shift more Band 2 patients to private? Your agent models the UDA impact of practice decisions before you make them.
Tracks contract year milestones
Quarter-end checkpoints, mid-year review thresholds, the point-of-no-return for recovery — your agent marks these in advance and checks performance against them. You always know whether you're ahead, behind, or on track.
The real numbers.
| Dental accountant quarterly reporting | £2,000–£5,000/year |
| Practice manager time on manual tracking | £1,000–£3,000/year |
| Average clawback from poor monitoring | £5,000–£50,000+ (when it happens) |
| Locum or overtime costs from late course correction | £2,000–£5,000/year |
| Realistic annual cost | £5,000–£12,000 |
| Agent build (one-off, configured to your contract terms) | £4,000–£6,000 |
| Monthly running costs (hosting + AI usage) | £150–£250/month |
| NHS contract and UDA regulation updates | Included in first year |
| Realistic first-year total | £5,800–£9,000 |
Clawback is the number-one financial anxiety for NHS dental practice owners. It's not that they don't track UDAs — it's that they track them too late, with data that's already stale, in a spreadsheet that doesn't adjust for the realities of running a practice.
A single avoided clawback typically pays for this agent many times over. Year two onwards, the cost drops to running costs only — roughly £1,800–£3,000/year — while the contract stays just as unforgiving.
Good fit / not a fit.
This works brilliantly for:
- Any NHS dental practice with an annual UDA contract target
- Practices with multiple associates where UDA delivery varies by clinician
- Practices that have experienced or narrowly avoided a clawback
- Multi-site dental groups managing multiple NHS contracts
This probably isn't for you if:
- Your practice is entirely private with no NHS contract
- You have a dedicated business manager who tracks UDAs weekly with sophisticated modelling
- Your contract is very small and the clawback risk is minimal
Let's talk.
We'll start with your contract details — annual UDA target, contract value, number of clinicians, and how you currently track delivery. We'll also want to understand your contract year history — whether you've hit target, missed it, or over-delivered. Usually a 15-minute conversation.
hello@nimblecroft.com