Optometry should be included in social care reform, Specsavers says

Primary care optometry “must be a key partner in health and social care pathway design,” LOCSU CEO Janice Foster said in the Specsavers Access to Care 2026 Report

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Older man sitting in an armchair and laughing with a care provider

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Lucy Miller

28 September 2026

Community optometry must be part of the solution when a new health and social care pathway is created, Specsavers has emphasised in its Access to Care 2026 Report.

Writing in the report, the chief executive of the Local Optical Committee Support Unit (LOCSU), Janice Foster, said that primary care optometry “must be a key partner in health and social care pathway design.”

The Access to Care 2026 Report was released on Sunday (27 September), to coincide with the start of the Labour Party Conference.

Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, also announced his plans for a social care service to mirror the NHS on the opening day of his party’s conference.

In its report, Specsavers highlights LOCSU’s Vision, healthy ageing and frailty position statement, which set out the reasons why optometry should be a vital part of the primary care conversation.

These reasons include that poor vision can affect balance, depth perception, confidence, medication management, communication, social participation, and the ability to remain safely at home.

The Access to Care 2026 Report noted that 30% of care home residents have sight loss, and that reduced vision contributes to falls and hospital admissions that cost the NHS £28 million annually.

Untreated vision and hearing loss was identified by the Lancet Commission as one of the “modifiable risk factors for dementia,” the report added.

“Great care for all means ensuring that older people and care home residents are not left behind,” Foster said in the report.

She added: “LOCSU calls on commissioners and system leaders to make vision a core component of healthy ageing and frailty strategies, strengthen domiciliary and care home eye care, and engage primary care optometry as a strategic asset to improving access, outcomes and independence.”

When speaking to journalist Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC on Sunday morning, the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, said that he would take his plans for social care to the nation as part of a manifesto for the general election in 2029.

Read the full Access to Care 2026 Report online.