19 August 2022

FODO member update – 19 August

This week:

• New apprenticeship consultation
• College issues new guidance on myopia management
• Booster jabs from September
• Inflation - how is it impacting you and your practice?
• Royal College launches election website for next president
• GOC publishes approved qualifications for contact lens opticians
• Other sector news

New apprenticeship consultation

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is running a consultation on an apprenticeship standard for dispensing opticians. The consultation runs between 15 August and 29 August. Learn more and take part.

ABDO has welcomed the consultation on the development of the DO apprenticeship standard having participated in the work of the employer-led trailblazer group. It has confirmed that the proposed Level 6 apprenticeship will not lead to any diminution of standards and will offer an alternative route to registration. 

College issues new guidance on myopia management

The College of Optometrists has reviewed the evidence and published the following new guidance for optometrists who provide myopia management:

• Childhood-onset myopia management: Guidance for optometrists
• Childhood-onset myopia management: Evidence review
• Myopia management: Member briefing
• Myopia management guidance: FAQs

Booster jabs from September

The JCVI has issued guidance on the Covid-19 booster vaccination programme for autumn 2022. This confirms that all frontline healthcare workers will be offered the Covid booster vaccine this autumn.

NHS England has confirmed that, following JCVI advice, these groups should be offered some form of booster in the autumn:

• Health and social care staff
• Everyone aged 50 and over
• Carers who are over the age of 16
• People over five whose health puts them at greater risk, including pregnant women
• People over five who share a house with somebody with a weakened immune system

NHS England added that individual UK nations would organise their rollouts before winter.

FODO will work with sector partners to clarify the arrangements and keep members informed. 

Inflation - how is it impacting you and your practice?

The ONS has confirmed that inflation in the UK has passed 10% for the first time in 40 years. When using RPI, inflation is estimated to be more than 12%.

At FODO, we want to hear from members about the impact inflation has on you and your practice, including whether you must increase prices for customers and whether you can still provide patients with spectacles within voucher values.

Please share your feedback in confidence by emailing [email protected]. 

Royal College launches election website for next president

Royal College launches election website for next president
The call for nominations for the next presidency of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) will open on 19 August. This year's innovation will be hustings on 7 October 2022 for candidates to answer some of the questions that members have posed. The hustings' recording will be posted on the RCOphth election website. 

GOC publishes approved qualifications for contact lens opticians

The GOC has published updated contact lens optician education and training requirements under its Education Strategic Review.

The requirements, which came into effect on 1 March 2022, include changes such as an outcomes-based approach to specify knowledge, skills and behaviours.

View the new requirements. 

Other sector news

A new Global Myopia Awareness Coalition (GMAC) is launching its first public campaign on 25 August to raise awareness of childhood myopia.

A new case study from LOCSU investigates independent prescribing (IP) optometrists' access to FP10 prescribing pads when working in urgent eyecare. The case study discusses the significant shift in access to FP10 prescribing pads for IP optometrists in areas that have CUES or MECS commissioned. Read the case study.