28 March 2017

Lynda Oliver confirmed as new Optical Confederation Chair

Following the decision to rotate the Chair amongst its members, following Chris Hunt's retirement in October 2016, at its meeting on 21 March, the Optical Confederation (OC) Leaders' Group - the governing partnership of the Confederation - unanimously asked Lynda Oliver to continue in the role of Optical Confederation Chair until October 2017.

Lynda Oliver said: "This is a great honour and I am delighted to take on this role with the support of my Optical Confederation colleagues. We are making good progress on the big strategic issues which will help all our members more than any of us could do alone."

The chair is to rotate annually between the five OC members, so Lynda will be succeeded from October 2017 to October 2018 by Fiona Anderson, President of the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO).

At their meeting, the Leaders' Group also considered collective strategic approaches to a variety of issues, including the General Optical Council's (GOC) review of the education and training, the Government's anticipated green paper on reform of the UK health regulators, which will include the GOC, and the issue of low General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) fees and grants. They also agreed an Optical Confederation public affairs strategy for the coming political session.