AOP Council meeting in five updates

A meeting on 3 June discussed GOC fees, glaucoma, and hosted the AOP Board election

6 min read

The AOP Councillors gather outside the glass front doors of the building, they are all looking up and smiling towards the camera

17 June 2026

The AOP’s Council met on 3 June to discuss General Optical Council (GOC) registrant fees, glaucoma guidelines from Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT), and the elements of daily practice that fall outside of funded care.

The gathering marked the first meeting of the AOP Council led by new chairman, Nizz Sabir, following a handover of the role from Emma Spofforth at the AOP annual general meeting.

This was also the first meeting for several newly appointed Councillors who represent optometrists across independent practice, locuming, hospital optometry, and early career.

OT has picked out key discussions from the agenda.

1 Funding and ‘goodwill’

To support negotiations on the General Ophthalmic Services (GOC) fee in England, the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC) is gathering evidence on the activities undertaken by optometrists outside of funded services.

Council discussed examples of elements of daily practice which are not funded but provided through “goodwill” for the benefit of the patient.

Examples ranged from additional administrative tasks beyond GOS, repeat readings and checks, and completing requests attached to hospital referrals, such as carrying out optical coherence tomography.

Councillors were considerate of the impact that disengaging from providing unfunded or “goodwill” activities could have for patients.

The Council discussed whether the profession needed to become more comfortable with charging private fees for services beyond the scope of GOS and considered whether patients may be becoming more used to paying for certain services in other areas of primary care, such as dentistry and GPs.

Optometrists in Scotland, where eye examinations are funded by the NHS, explained the importance of language when discussing eye care provision and how this can empower optometrists to charge for services that fall out of funded provision.

Erica Campbell Walker, AOP Councillor representing Scotland, shared that she will talk to patients about sight tests being “NHS-funded” rather than “free.”

2 GOC fee proposals discussed

The AOP Council engaged in a thoughtful debate on the GOC’s proposed changes to registrant fees.

The GOC’s discussion paper on its approach to setting fees features proposals including a differential fee structure, an instalments payment model, and increased transparency.

The fee structure explored by the GOC would see different fees across groups of registrants, such as lower fees for dispensing opticians, newly-qualified registrants, and those on maternity or parental leave.

Higher fees are proposed for specialist registrants, while a further discount would be available for those on low income.

To facilitate discussion, the AOP Council was divided into two groups to share arguments for and against the proposals.

Councillors highlighted the benefits to certain groups of registrants in paying a lesser fee, though they questioned whether the impact of reducing fees for certain groups might pass the burden onto other registrants.

They also noted that self-employed locums and business owners could be significantly impacted by the proposals.

Councillors expressed that they would not be in support of changes if changing the fee system increased administrative costs.

The discussion also considered the potential for an increased fee for specialist registrants and whether this could have an impact on future uptake of higher qualifications.

It was pointed out that this would have a significant impact in Scotland, where a greater proportion of optometrists are independent prescribers.

Councillors considered the GOC’s proposal to introduce differential registration fees for businesses, compared to individual registrants, and what this could be based on.

Johnathan Waugh, AOP Councillor representing Scotland, suggested that specialist registrants are not necessarily receiving a higher salary and so implementing a differential fee structure for businesses based on turnover or profit may be a more appropriate model.

However, he emphasised that this would only work if all optometry businesses were required to register with the GOC in order to ensure fees are differentiated proportionally.

3 Glaucoma guidance: highlighting optometry-led care

The AOP Council considered the implications of the recently-released GIRFT Best Practice guidance for Glaucoma Services.

The paper includes an acknowledgement of the importance and efficacy of optometry models such as Glaucoma Enhanced Case-Finding Services and Glaucoma Repeat Measures Service, as well as discussing models for secondary care-led diagnostic hub approaches.

Council were asked for their views on how to highlight the benefits of optometry-led care models to commissioners.

Ankur Trivedi, AOP Councillor representing independent prescribing optometrists, noted that a key benefit of community-based glaucoma pathways is reduced false-positive cases going into secondary care, which both saves the healthcare system money and improves capacity for hospital eye services.

Councillors considered the different volumes of patients who can be seen in secondary care settings by hospital optometrists, compared with community practice.

Councillors were also keen to emphasise the importance of considering the patient perspective and experience.

It was noted that, for many patients, their community optometrists are familiar faces, more frequently in contact, and closer to home.

Kaljit Dhaliwal, AOP Councillor representing employees of independent practices, highlighted the importance of opportunities for optometrists to upskill in higher qualifications in glaucoma, and what methods could be taken to encourage and enable this.

4 Updates from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales

Kamal Kalsi, AOP Councillor representing Wales, shared that all practices in Wales have been supplied with the WP10(SO) signed order forms. This enables optometrists practising under NHS contract to prescribe treatments for patients from a list of common eye conditions such as dry eyes and conjunctivitis.

Councillors discussed how this could help to reduce the workload of independent prescribing optometrists, enabling them to concentrate on more serious eye conditions.

Judith Tate, AOP Councillor representing Northern Ireland, updated the Council on the continued lobbying activities of Optometry Northern Ireland, highlighting the work of optometrists and how this aligns to neighbourhood health priorities and ambitions.

Representing Scotland, Waugh shared that the GOS Specialist Supplement Service rolled out in January and is now across all health boards, enabling IP qualified optometrists to manage 10 anterior eye conditions in the community.

Waugh updated Council on progress towards the future introduction of a national low vision service, something that has built on ‘months and years’ of work.

Paul Alexander, AOP policy and governance manager, illustrated the strong desire of the AOP to collaborate with optometry bodies in the devolved nations to garner learnings around achieving the commissioning of comprehensive low vision services.