Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the NHS Fife who funded the one-year pilot study (2007-2008) and the Scottish Government who provided financial support for the three-year major study (2008-2011). We would also like to acknowledge the support from the NHS Education for Scotland (NES), particularly the Acting Postgraduate Dental Dean, Dr David Felix (including his predecessor Dr Jim Rennie as Postgraduate Dean) and his team for being responsible for the financial governance for the project. The overall support for the project has relied on Margie Taylor, the Chief Dental Officer for Scotland.
In addition, we would like to acknowledge the support from the University Court of the University of St Andrews, who kindly acted as the sponsor for this study.
We are grateful for the encouragement and support from the Childsmile Evaluation Board, the Childsmile Evaluation and Research Team based in the University of Glasgow, the Childsmile Programme Directors Lorna Macpherson and Graham Ball and the East of Scotland Programme Manager Kim Chalmers.
We would like to thank the Tayside Committee on Medical Research Ethics B, the Research Ethics Service, for their constructive advice during the ethical application process, particularly to Lorraine Reilly and Fiona Bain for their helpful guidance. Many thanks are due to the support from the Research and Development offices from the three NHS board regions, NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley and NHS Tayside.
Special thanks are also due to the three educational authorities who allowed us to carry out the project within their educational establishments. They are the Education Services in Dunfermline & Inverkeithing from the Fife Council, the Education Services from the Dundee City Council, the Education and Community Services/Early Years & Out of School Care services from the Clackmannanshire Council, the Education Services from the Falkirk Council and the Children’s Services from the Stirling Council. We also own our thanks to the support from the management board of the Dental Public Health in NHS Fife (Graham Ball), the NHS Forth Valley (Derek Richards) and the NHS Tayside (Martyn Merrett). Without help from these people and organizations, our study would not have progressed so smoothly.
Our special thanks are additionally given to Elaine Cameron for her contribution to the development of the coding scheme in the pilot study; and to Brett Duane and Liz Peat for their helpful discussion at the very beginning of the main BEHAVE study.
We extend our considerable gratitude to all the participants including the dental nurses, the parents and the children for their enthusiastic participation and cooperation throughout the project. We are also grateful for the support from the 35 schools who took part in the study, particularly the head teachers, nursery staff and administrative staff. Acknowledgements are given to the Childsmile coordinators, Liz Peat (NHS Fife), Fiona Rodger (NHS Forth Valley), Margaret Paterson (NHS Tayside), the dental health support workers and other support staff from the Childsmile team for their excellent coordination and invaluable assistance. We are indebted to them for their time and effort spent supporting our study.