Our political engagement: April – June 2025
Optometry’s role in the Neighbourhood Health Service
Jess Brown Fuller, MP, Peter Hampson, AOP Clinical and Policy Director
The Government unveiled its long-awaited 10-Year Plan for Health, with a major focus on shifting to community-based care through a new Neighbourhood Health Service. Ahead of its release, we ramped up efforts to secure a leading role for optometry in this transformation.
In the past three months we championed community optometry as a solution for tackling health inequalities, delivering a more sustainable NHS, and for shifting care out of hospitals to reduce waiting lists.
We have compiled some key milestones:
- We welcomed the Government’s 10-Year Plan for Health, emphasising the need for proper investment in primary care services to ensure patients receive timely, high-quality care, wherever they live. With a proven track record in delivering accessible, cost-effective services, optometry is ready to play its part in the transformation
- We launched our #YouWontSeeItComing campaign to highlight the regional variations in access to glaucoma care and called on the Government to roll out national eye care services through community optometrists to prevent avoidable sight loss and ease NHS pressure. The campaign gained coverage in seven national newspapers, over 150 regional press, and 30 broadcast interviews, including BBC One’s Morning Live, The Telegraph, The Independent, and The Evening Standard
- We met Labour Health champion Rosie Wrighting to discuss practical solutions to England’s postcode lottery in eye care, focusing on how better IT connectivity, integrated care pathways, and community services can transform patient outcomes. In the Devolved Nations, we built on our work by meeting MPs Irene Campbell and Susan Murray to explore Scotland’s eye care successes, ongoing challenges, and opportunities to improve access
- We hosted a parliamentary discussion, chaired by Peter Dowd MP, to highlight our PA Consulting report, spotlighting four, high-impact system wide recommendations that could cut waiting lists, save nearly two million appointments a year and generate almost £100 million in NHS savings
- We endorsed the recommendations of Healthwatch England’s second report into eye care, urging action on NHS funding pressures in optics to improve access for those on the lowest incomes. We also responded to the RNIB’s call to expand primary care optometry, supporting its proposals to save the NHS over £1 billion and protect the nation’s sight
- We were involved in the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eye Health and Visual Impairment’s panel, where hard data and lived experience underscored early intervention and access as vital to protecting the nation’s sight. The consensus was that optometry must sit at the heart of future eye care transformation with the number of people affected by sight loss set to double by 2050
- We issued a joint letter with the College of Optometrists to Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, urging mandatory vision checks for all licence applications and renewals to help prevent vision related fatalities and safeguard our roads.
