Don Grocott, convenor of the Optical Confederation, agreed that the united voice of the five optical associations (ABDO, the ACLM, AOP, FMO and FODO) had given greater leverage on government.
He said the Confederation's work had certainly helped bring about the inclusion of an eye health indicator in the Public Health Outcomes Framework (News 27.01.13), which he described as a major step forward and an example of the benefits of joint working across the whole sector - including the Colleges, hospital colleagues and third sector partners. 'It shows what the sector can do for eye health when it works as one,' he noted.
A major reason for the Confederation's success was its flat structure, he said. 'We have five organisations all representing people who work in optics with a commercial interest. These are five organisations with core themes - including raising technical, service and professional standards in the widest sense, and developing eye care across the board. When the Confederation was set up we wanted to avoid creating a body with a chairman and a chief executive. That would be yet another optical body. In the Confederation you have leadership from the top of the five organisations working together closely to build a rapport so that optics speaks with a single voice. It is so much easier when speaking to government that one is representing the whole sector - and easier for an MP to say something on optics if he can say "The Optical Confederation says". For me it is a no-brainer.
'Another benefit is that we now have combined AGMs bringing a different level of interest. We can attract more significant people such as the health minister Earl Howe who came last year. The AOP, FODO and the ACLM combine their AGMs in Cardiff in May this year.'
He pointed to other Confederation successes - retaining GOS as a demand-led budget, avoiding the duplication of Care Quality Commission registration and gaining sensible and non-bureaucratic implementation of NHS Choices. The recent responses to the Monitor consultations were a case in point. 'There was so much work to do in a short space of time, including working with pharmacy and dentistry - we had to pool resources to do that. You cannot say that none of these would have happened without the Confederation, but the single voice definitely makes it easier to achieve for the sector.
'People understand each other which is good. We try as hard as we can to have a single Confederation view. There's no let up: think driving, cataracts, developing LOCSU pathways and so on.
'That five organisations look at these things together helps enormously. The nickel issue was resolved 18 months or so ago with representations to the EU as well as country of origin regulations. We also resisted additional onerous training requirements for small practices.'
The Confederation is set to launch its own website, which Grocott, who facilitates its leadership group meetings, said would demonstrate to more and more people in the optical sector that they were really working together.
'Part of the difficulty in previous attempts at joint working was trying to encompass too many different organisations,' he said, 'but now the Confederation has a realistic future, with the default position of cooperation.'
Grocott acknowledged the role of the leaders of all five member organisations in forming the Confederation and making it work. 'Collective leadership has never been more needed in our sector. There is some ceding of sovereignty to everyone's benefit - not easy but very worthwhile.'