Adam Sampson: “These issues are not going away”

The AOP is no exception. At the beginning of the year, my mind turns to the run-up to 100% Optical, for example; the autumn means political party conference season; and the year’s end is dominated by the planning and reporting cycle. There is also the usual diet of every CEO’s job: Board and Committee meetings, management and staffing business, project monitoring, and front-of-house stuff.

However, the AOP is above all a membership organisation, and behind all that is the steady beat of our core member-facing activity: educational events, legal representation, student recruitment, and responding to the changes of status that come with the OSCEs. There are the Council meetings, where we can garner input and advice from people who know our members – and are known by them – across all areas of work and all parts of the UK.

We are sensing a significant shift in the way optometrists and dispensing opticians approach their work

This year we also added a programme of roadshows, which I hope to be the first of a regular series of face-to-face events where we can spend time with members and hear from them directly on their issues and problems. We are also preparing for the next iteration of our member survey, a process we run every three years to seek to understand what members are thinking and feeling about their profession and their careers, as well as what they value about the AOP and what areas they think we could do better.

But we don’t need to wait for the results of the member survey to know that work-life balance and flexibility, topics explored in this issue of OT, are incredibly important to an increasing number of AOP members. From the issues raised with our legal team and the calls taken by our Peer Support Line, to membership showing the number of members moving towards flexible or part-time working models, we are sensing a significant shift in the way optometrists and dispensing opticians approach their work.

Their professional practice remains important to them, but the notion that they live only to work, and that their personal lives are less important than their professional ones, is being replaced by a growing sense that they work to live: that the needs of their business and their patients do not trump their own individual and family needs.

Some of that, of course, may be driven by the changing demographics of the profession. Over the past couple of decades we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of women joining the profession, with female students outnumbering males two to one on some current university optometry courses. Linked to this we are now seeing a significant increase in the number of our members on parental leave, with many of those members either returning on a part-time rather than full-time basis, or leaving the profession entirely. It is clear that the needs of family life are a significant driver of people’s attitude to work.

Some of this may also be linked to changes in the professional environment in which members are operating. Student members are reporting increased levels of stress as they navigate the changing expectations of university life. Changes in the way employers treat their employees will have an impact too, as will the increasing dependence on the use of complex technology to carry out members’ core tasks or changes in the attitudes of patients to the service they receive. At a time when some members are facing increased stresses in the world outside work, from the rising cost of living to more competition in the housing market, we should expect to see more evidence of emotional stress and mental health challenges.

It is clear that the needs of family life are a significant driver of people’s attitude to work

At the AOP, our offer has for a long time moved beyond the core pillars of legal defence, education and clinical advice – the Peer Support Line, for example, has been offering emotional support to members for nine years. More recently we have begun to invest further in health and wellbeing training and support, through activities either delivered directly through our legal and clinical teams, or indirectly via our education events, written guidance, and resources, or work with employers.

The need is huge, and we are a relatively small team. But, if there is one thing we know, it is that these issues are not going away. We need to continue to develop our offer and policy in this area so we can support our members not just as professionals, but as people.