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About us

We are the association for eye care providers and support, champion and shape the future of eye care in the UK.

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FODO is the leading national association for eye care providers working in primary and community care settings. Each year our members provide over 18 million eye examinations and offer a wide range of other eye care services across the UK.

What we do

We support, champion and shape the future of eye care in the UK. We do this by:

  • Helping individual, local, regional and national eye care providers succeed through our insurance, expert regulatory defence, advice and guidance and expertise in health policy, so they can meet the population's eye care needs
  • Working with governments, the NHS, third sector and partners across health and social care to achieve our policy goals for the benefit of members and patients and in the public interest.

Our goal - better eye care for all

Our goal is to work in partnership with our members to achieve better eye care for all by:

  • Ensuring eye care is an integral part of population and public health
  • Protecting patient access to a nationally funded NHS eye examination
  • Preventing sight loss due to delays in care and tackling rationing that's not based on evidence  
  • Breaking down artificial barriers between primary, community and secondary eye care which get in the way of excellent patient care
  • Securing the workforce, infrastructure and funding models necessary to deliver world-class eye care across the UK.

Influence and reach

The scale of our membership and our rational, evidence-based approach to clinical, regulatory and health funding issues makes us one of the most influential sector organisations. We also work in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders both nationally and internationally in support of the UK eye care sector.  

 

Our head office team

Harjit Sandhu
CEO

Harjit is a health policy expert with special interests in health economics and health systems. He started his career as an optometrist and has worked in a variety of clinical, policy and operational roles across community practice, the hospital service, the third sector and international clinical trials. He has an MSc in Health Economics, Policy and Management from the LSE, and brings a wide range of analytical, clinical and public health skills to his role.

David Hewlett
Director of policy and strategy

David is a health analyst, policymaker and strategist with over 25 years' experience at a senior level in Whitehall at the Departments of Health & Social Security, holding posts including head of hospitals, specialised health services, purchasing (now called commissioning) and GP fundholding total purchasing (clinical commissioning).

Alan Tinger
Director of membership services

Alan leads on regulatory affairs at FODO, including professional liability, legal defence, optical regulation, finance and taxation. He is a chartered accountant and a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute. He was formerly a financial consultant to the General Optical Council, managing director and part-owner of Galaxy Optical Services and finance director of Miller & Santhouse Plc.

Giusy Maniscalchi

PA to Harjit Sandhu

With over 10 years' administrative experience, Giusy takes pride in providing the highest quality admin support to the managing director as well as the Membership team and Finance department. Outside work, Giusy enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, and watching Italian football, especially her team Juventus.

Sue Silvester
PA to David Hewlett

Sue is an experienced PA, working for a visual impairment charity for more than 20 years before joining FODO in June 2018. When not at work, she loves spending time with family and friends and walking her dogs.

Rajan Verma
Insurance and Membership Officer

Rajan is the go-to person for members to gain advice and information on insurance claims, GOC cases, local level complaints and other matters, including GDPR and NHS/GOC queries. He organises all Continuing Education and Training (CET) for FODO members.

Daniel Hodgson
Head of Policy and Public Affairs

Dan is a health policy expert with an interest in primary care provision and service contracts. He has worked across a variety of healthcare fields for 15 years, covering medical research, healthcare education, and primary care policy and contracts. Dan liaises with other eye care and health care partners across the UK, and is the go-to person for any policy matters at FODO.

Expert advisers

Professor Steve Taylor
Clinical

Our professional adviser Steve Taylor is a registered optometrist with experience in hospital, education, industry, management and high street practice settings.

He has published and lectured extensively on topics he's particularly interested in, including clinical optometry, optometry education, legal and professional aspects of the optical profession and vision and driving.

Steve was a member of the GOC Fitness to Practice panel for 10 years. As a consultant, he has helped numerous new optometry schools to get established and is an optometry adviser to NHS England.

Steve has a PhD from the University of Wales and is a Fellow of the College of Optometrists and a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry.

Shaun King
VAT

Shaun is a Director of Kings VAT, a specialist company that's been advising FODO and optical practices all over the UK on numerous VAT related matters since 1995.

During that time, he devised and negotiated the use of the full cost apportionment (FCA) method when making a single charge for supplies of spectacles and dispensing.

With his extensive knowledge of VAT and optics, Shaun has also advised several optical companies on disputes with HMRC, including cases resulting in litigation.

In addition, he has represented the profession in national discussions with HMRC, for example on acceptable methods of apportionment and the use of partial exemption methods.

Legal defence partnership

We work in partnership with our independent lawyers, Clyde & Co and their dedicated Healthcare Regulatory team for FODO.

Employment law partnership

We work in partnership with WorkNest to provide our members with employment law and health and safety support.

Our Board

Sarah Joyce, Chair

Paul Carroll, Non-Executive Director

Stephen Clark, Non-Executive Director

Peena Govind, Non-Executive Director

Hayley Holford, Non-Executive Director

Stephen Hannan, Non-Executive Director

John Hopcroft, Non-Executive Director

Stuart Laird, Non-Executive Director

Dan McGhee, Non-Executive Director

Claire Slade, Non-Executive Director

Glenn Tomison, Non-Executive Director

Harjit Sandhu, CEO

David Hewlett, Director of policy and strategy

Alan Tinger, Director of membership services

FODO is part of the FODO Group. We also support eye care providers in Ireland and since 2016 a growing number of ophthalmologists and ophthalmology providers across the UK. We also represent and support audiology providers through the National Community Hearing Association (NCHA).

Job opportunities

To join our mailing list for jobs at the FODO Group please email [email protected].