VOHA Response to the 2024-2025 Victorian Budget
This report was prepared by representatives of the various leading professional, welfare, and consumer organisations, alongside community dental services on behalf of the Victorian Oral Health Alliance (VOHA).
Funding may slightly reduce this year compared to last, but it has significantly decreased from pre-COVID times.
The only departmental objective related to oral health is to reduce the hospitalisation rate for children aged 0-9 years due to dental conditions. The Budget makes no further mention of this, likely considering it an operational matter.
- The Budget figure of $213.4m is down 15% ($37m) from last year, excluding the Commonwealth NPA funding.
- The Federal Budget commits $26.9m ($1m more than the 2016-17 allocation) to Victoria. Including this, the total is $240m, a $10m reduction from last year.
- There is no allowance for inflation, including agreed or likely staff enterprise bargaining agreement rises.
- In 2019-20, pre-COVID, actual funded expenditure was $294m, 22% more than the 2024-25 announcement. Targets were almost the same, indicating a significant per-person funding reduction, even without inflation.
- Considering inflation, the CPI indicates a 19% increase over five years. To match 2019-20 figures, funding for 332,000 Victorians should be around $350m, $110m more than currently allocated, a 28% reduction per client in CPI-adjusted terms.
- The system remains focused on emergency care and priority groups, leaving only 25% to address long waiting lists for general care.
- Budget papers’ waiting time targets are unchanged at an average of 23 months for general clients and 22 months for dentures, which are unacceptable on fairness or clinical grounds.
Funding Comparison between 2024/25 and 2019/20
| Year | Funding $ | Funding adjusted to 2024 | Target persons | Todays $ per client | % change from 19-20 adjusted |
| 2019-20 | 294m | 350m | 324k | $1,080 | |
| 2024-25 with Commonwealth NPA$* | 240m | 240m | 332k | $772 | -28% |
| 2024-25 no Commonwealth | 213m | 213m | 332k | $641 | -41% |
From Budget Paper # 3
This output includes delivery of a range of dental health services to support health and wellbeing in the community.
| 2023‑24 budget | 2023‑24 revised | 2024‑25 budget | Variation % (a) | |
| Dental Services (c) | 250.7 | 250.9 | 213.4 | (14.9) |
From Departmental Performance Statement
This output includes delivery of a range of dental health services to support health and wellbeing in the community.
| Performance measure | Unit of measure | 2024-25 target | 2023-24 expected outcome | 2023-24 target | 2022-23 actual |
| Quantity | |||||
| Children participating in the Smiles 4 Miles oral health promotion program | number | 60 000 | 60 000 | 49 000 | 60 657 |
| The 2023-24 expected outcome is higher than the 2023-24 target due to increased funding of staff and promotional materials, boosting the program’s reach to more children in early childhood services. The higher 2024-25 target is due to increased funding that will improve capacity of staff and expand promotional materials to be able to reach more children in early childhood services, increasing the program’s coverage. | |||||
| Persons treated | number | 332 150 | 332 150 | 332 150 | 296 932 |
| Priority and emergency clients treated | number | 249 100 | 249 100 | 249 100 | 221 565 |
| Schools visited by Smile Squad | number | 575 | 523 | 200 | 177 |
| The 2023-24 expected outcome is higher than the 2023-24 target due to continued uplift in activity. Initial target was set at the implementation stage of the program, where there was no historical data to inform target setting. The higher 2024-25 target is due to continued uplift in activity. Initial target was set at the implementation stage of the program, where there was no historical data to inform target setting. | |||||
| Students examined by Smile Squad | number | 58 000 | 48 626 | 50 000 | 31 844 |
| The higher 2024-25 target is due to continued uplift in activity as the program reaches full capacity. | |||||
| Students receiving treatment by Smile Squad | number | 15 500 | 12 960 | 7 500 | 7 759 |
| The 2023-24 expected outcome is higher than the 2023-24 target due to continued uplift in activity. Initial target was set at the implementation stage of the program, where there was no historical data to inform target setting. The higher 2024-25 target is due to continued uplift in activity as the program reaches full capacity. | |||||
| Timeliness | |||||
| Percentage of Dental Emergency Triage Category 1 clients treated within 24 hours | per cent | 90 | 90 | 90 | 91 |
| Waiting time for dentures | months | 22 | 22 | 22 | 16.1 |
| Waiting time for general dental care | months | 23 | 23 | 23 | 16.9 |
| Cost | |||||
| Total output cost | $ million | 213.4 | 250.9 | 250.7 | 240.7 |
| The lower 2024-25 target reflects pending Commonwealth commitments for Dental Services and the cashflow profile for the Smile Squad program. | |||||
Victorian Oral Health Alliance 