We are ready to support you and your career in 2024

Let me wish you a Happy New Year, and say thank you to all of you who have renewed your membership with us in 2024. We truly value your support and will continue to work hard this year to safeguard your interests, support your career aspirations, and champion the work you do.

I would like to share some highlights of our work last year, and to let you know about the activities to look out for in 2024 including important dates for your calendar.

What we achieved in 2023

Last year we were proud to deliver high-quality education and professional development support, including 54 online and in-person events, with over 85,000 CPD exams taken online. Our journal, Optometry Today (OT), produced four special guides: myopia management to practical advice for locum practitioners. Our meticulous in-house legal and regulatory team responded to more than 3900 member queries, including over 1100 that were related to employment law issues.

We also engaged and informed key new audiences with our policy and campaigning work. The extensive media coverage we received for our Sight won’t wait campaign, attending and speaking at the three main UK-wide Party conferences, and our role in The Eyes Have It partnership were all key successes.

2024 highlights to look forward to

We remain focused on the delivery of our Five-Year Strategy, including responding to the findings from last year’s major research project into the challenges our members face, and the expectations you have for your future career and the profession as a whole.

Here are just a few of the activities to look out for in 2024, including important dates for your calendar:

• Our legal and regulatory team will produce more guidance for members at all career stages, answering your most common queries and helping you navigate professional issues and representation when you most need it
• You can look forward to more high quality AOP education and professional development opportunities in what is the last year of the current GOC CPD cycle. OT will publish a CPD survival pack later in the year, to help ensure you meet all your requirements
• 100% Optical marks its 10-year anniversary this year. With the AOP as Official UK partner and OT as Official media partner, we are proud to have delivered the education programme for this event since it launched, and look forward to meeting you there this year at the AOP Lounge. If you haven’t already registered to attend, please do!
• Our Council elections will be an important opportunity for members to get involved and influence AOP policy. We are looking to fill 13 elected Council positions across all of the four nations, and inviting applications for four designated positions: Undergraduate student, Pre-registration optometrist, Newly qualified and early career optometrist, and Dispensing optician. Nominations open on 15 February, so look out for more information on how to get involved, which will be coming soon.

Important membership information

• Your 2024 AOP Certificate of Insurance is available to download online from your My AOP account
• The AOP is an HMRC-approved professional body, which means that if you are a UK tax payer, you may be eligible to claim tax relief on your AOP membership fee which could save you more than £280. The level of medical malpractice cover has been increased for 2024, at no additional cost to you, to £15million per claim per member and £20million in total per member 
• Please check your contact details and employment details  are up to date so you can receive your copy of OT, regular email updates about AOP member services and benefits, and occasional SMS updates. You can do this by logging into your My AOP and checking or editing you details
• If you are an employer or business owner, you benefit from vicarious liability cover as part of your AOP membership, which means you are covered for the acts or omissions of your employees (subject to meeting the terms and conditions of the cover).

We will keep you up-to-date on further developments throughout the year. We look forward to hearing from you, or meeting you in person at 100% Optical or one of our other face-to-face events in 2024.

With best wishes

Adam Sampson
AOP Chief Executive