“There is so much that we can do through our optical practices on the High Street”

The plan, published on the LOCSU website and designed to lay out the organisation’s actions for the coming year, has widening support for Local Optical Committee (LOCs) across England at its centre.

LOCSU chief executive, Janice Foster, told OT that increased help for LOCs and the contractors and performers they support underpins the work that is being carried out.

The LOCSU team wants to support LOCs to be “successful, strong and thriving organisations,” Foster said.

The plan “looks to what further work LOCSU can do to support and prepare LOCs at what is a critical time for the optometry sector, and also looks at developing a longer five-year strategy as we move into a new government and a new political landscape,” she added.

Through the forward plan, Foster wants to empower LOCs to put optometry front and centre when services are being commissioned in their areas.

“It’s working towards making sure we’ve got a very strong fundamental base in terms of the support that’s available to LOCs throughout England,” Foster told OT.

She continued: “There are so many passionate and skilled people working with LOCs up and down the country. We want to make sure we put them in the best possible place for success, and to enable them to really support the contractors and performers in their local area – particularly when we think about the opportunities for local commissioning, local services, and those conversations that happen on a very local level about improving access.”  

The seven priorities

The priorities laid out in the forward plan are designed to enhance the support that LOCSU provides for its LOCs across the board, Foster said.

The first two priorities are centred on ensuring that LOCSU meets the needs of LOCs and enables sharing and learning, she explained, “putting our energy where it will make the most difference for LOCs.”

Specifically, priority two focuses on LOC development – with key activity around training, learning, and succession planning, so that LOCs are “in the best possible position, with skills, knowledge, evidence, and all of those other things that go with it, when they’re sitting around the table with commissioners.”

Priority three considers the relationship between LOCSU, LOCs and primary eye care companies, the latter of which Foster describes as “prime providers at scale in local areas.”

How LOCSU and LOCs can support primary eye care companies in the work that they deliver on behalf of the optometry sector will be key to this, Foster said.

The fourth priority is around data: “building that evidence base for LOCs, with robust data to influence and get the best possible services for local people and for the contractors that work within their area,” Foster explained.

She emphasised that “one of our prime functions is to support and empowerLOCs in theirwork with commissioners. To help them influence, they need to have all the information to hand and the evidence that underpins it – the supporting cases that are required to ensure informed decision making.”

Priority five focuses on LOCSU itself, ensuring that it evolves as an organisation and has the skills and infrastructure in-house that is required to support LOCs going forward.

"We are on a journey in transforming LOCSU, especially with all the changes following the pandemic, the changes in commissioning, and as Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) cometo the fore,” Foster explained.

Priority six will work to bring the other focuses together, improving communication and engagement with LOCs, and also with the wider eye health sector, whilst ensuring that LOCSU is positioned as “a very strong advocate for primary eye care, LOCs, and contractors in the community.”

The final priority considers additional support that LOCSU might need to provide to support sector bodies and national organisations associated with primary eye care.

This work will ensure that LOCSU is providing the local evidence to underpin national strategy development.

It will also ensure that LOCs are aware of national developments and discussions that inform their local work, amplifying the primary eye care voice at every level.

LOCSU has a role in successfully articulating the potential of primary eye care and what its practitioners can do, Foster explained.

There are so many passionate and skilled people working with LOCs up and down the country. We want to make sure we put them in the best possible place for success

Taking primary care optometry forward through LOCs

OT is interested in how Foster believes the priorities laid out in the plan will benefit the optometry profession as a whole.

“The forward plan is to support LOCs, primarily, so the focus is upon LOCs,” Foster emphasised.

She encouraged primary eye care professionals to engage with their LOCs, integrating themselves in the optometry communities in which they practise.

“I would encourage everybody to become part of or involved with their LOCs,” Foster said. “A key action is making sure you’re abreast of all the things going on in your area – being aware of all the local discussions, and being part of that voice and part of that influence.”

She added: “There are many LOCs and practices doing incredible things across the country already. We want to ensure this receives recognition and best practice is shared across the country.

“We want to empower very strong, thriving, resilient, committees and practices, delivering care across England. It’s really important that professionals get involved in that, have a voice, and influence the future of eye care delivery and patient care.”

LOCs vocalise practitioners’ views and act as representatives of all the contractors and performers in their areas, Foster said – whether a local optometrist is active on their LOC or not.

“It’s really important that primary eye care professionals understand the work that LOCs undertake, understand the support that is out there, and understand how they can have their voice heard at a local and national level,” she said.

It’s really important that primary eye care professionals understand the work that LOCs undertake, understand the support that is out there, and understand how they can have their voice heard

She emphasised that communication with their LOC is one of the primary ways that a practitioner can influence and have a stake in the services and the commissioning that is taking place in their area.

This collaborative working is “how we lever support for primary eye care funding, services, and resources, to have a very vibrant, thriving and sustainable primary eye care community,” Foster believes.

She explained: “The plan sets out a roadmap of how we can ensure that those who are talking on a very local level have the shared intelligence, data, networking and information that they need to really influence those decisions that the NHS commissioners are making, in terms of patient access, primary care, and the contribution that optometry can make.

“The overarching aim, as always, is around making sure we have plenty of high-quality optometry services for patients on the High Street.”

She added that maximising the range of skills and the extensive optometry workforce “that we have on the doorstep” to improve eye care throughout the country is an integral part of the work LOCSU is carrying out.

A moment of change

The key change that needs to happen in order for primary care optometry to reach the goal of being strong, thriving and resilient is for ICBs to regularly welcome LOCs to the commissioning table, Foster believes.

“There are a lot of very skilled, passionate people working within LOCs, and they have a lot of information,” she said.

These LOC teams are well-placed to positively affect patient care, advise on the effective use of NHS resources, increase access to care, and address healthcare inequities, Foster believes – all of which ICBs themselves are working towards.

“One of the main things that needs to happen is the recognition of the importance of LOCs, and proactive consideration of primary eye care in all the commissioning decisions that take place,” she said.

LOCSU is working to “empower people with the training that’s required to ensure that we continue to have strong leaders within the primary eye care sector, but also that we empower those leaders with the information that they need to influence and shape informed decision making,” Foster shared.

She also urged practitioners and LOC members to ensure they know who the key primary eye care providers in their areas are, and to actively engage with them.

Primary eye care companies are “an integral part of the system” and hugely helpful to the NHS, Foster said.

She emphasised that the whole sector working together is vital.

“It’s one thing to have pathways and services commissioned, but the important part is bringing people through those pathways so they can really benefit from that care,” Foster said.

“It’s really important that we all work as a sector, and that providers work together to ensure that the journey is seamless for patients.”

It’s one thing to have pathways and services commissioned, but the important part is bringing people through those pathways so they can really benefit from that care

To the future

The availability of evidence and having it to hand when needed is important in influencing the wider health agenda, Foster believes – as is replicating those services that are displaying best practice and positive outcomes across the country.

She points to health inequalities and improved patient access as a vital area for improvement.

“We have skilled professionals who can provide eye care so close to everybody's home, and yet, as a country, we’re wrestling with waiting lists and access challenges,” Foster said. “There is so much that we can do through our optical practices on the High Street.”

She also referenced Net Zero as something that needs to be focused on more, as does the ‘civic duty’ of commissioners to support local communities and businesses.

Community optometry can assist in this, as it allows patients to be treated closer to home by locally employed people.

It is something that should be considered “when we think about the travel that people undertake to access certain care, when actually we have optical practices so well placed around the corner,” Foster said.

OT is interested in whether the 2024 general election has affected LOCSU’s plans in any way.

Foster acknowledged that, straight after an election, there is always a “settling period.”

She noted, though, that the Labour Party manifesto did mention eye care.

“We are all working together in this area, to really ensure that those national promises that were made come to fruition,” she said.

It remains to be seen what the impact will be locally, Foster added.

She is hopeful, however.

“What we do know is that primary eye care is high on the agenda,” she said. “It has been noted; it has been referenced. We really need to make sure that we’re in the best possible place to maximise and build on the interest.”