2026 ROCs Begin in the North of England
6 November 2026
The long-awaited 2026 Regional Optical Conferences (ROCs) kicked off in the north of England this week.
LOCSU were pleased to welcome all 14 local LOCs to Hilton Leeds City for the North East and Yorkshire Conference on Tuesday 3 November, before turning attention to the North West, congregating at Delta by Marriot in Liverpool City Centre.
The popular one-day regional events offered LOCs the opportunity to network, share best practice, and discuss key local issues, with feedback on the various sessions overwhelmingly positive.
The morning of both events began with an update and Q&A from OFNC, followed by a session on the local neighbourhood optometry offer.
Fionnuala Kidd, LOCSU’s Head of Regional Optometry Partnerships, then led a session on the importance of different clinical pathways, before the afternoon put the agenda in the hands of each region.
The North East and Yorkshire region explored Indicative Activity Plans (IAPs), workforce development and neighbourhood health, whilst discussions in the North West centred around Single Point of Access (SPoA), digital ways of working and IAPs.
Claire Talayhan, one of LOCSU’s newly appointed Regional Optometry Partners, led afternoon sessions at both conferences. She said: “The ROCs have been a great opportunity to bring LOCs together, share experiences and look at how we can work more closely across the region.
“As the Regional Optometry Partner for the North East and Yorkshire, I’m really pleased to be supporting that collaboration, and helping LOCs to have a stronger, joined-up voice in conversations with commissioners.”
Garrey Haas, Co-Chair of East Yorkshire LOC, said: “It’s been a very interesting morning. We’ve looked at different pathways and commissioning different groups, how we as an LOC can help to influence that, and if we want to get certain pathways, how we can use what we’ve learned here today to get those pathways in place.”
Katie McClure, Chair of North Cumbria LOC, said: “The day has been a whistle-stop of up-to-date information. It’s really good that it could be flexible. The agenda has moved around to keep up to date with the changes that are occurring.
“It’s great to be listening to what the other LOCs are experiencing. We all have our different challenges, and learning how they adapted to their challenges is good to take back to our LOC.
“The key takeaways have been to keep the communication going, to use the language that the ICB need to hear, and to be as communicative as possible with them.”
LOCSU would like to thank all who attended the ROCs in Leeds and Liverpool this week, and those who have already provided feedback.
Some challenges are simply too important for any LOC to tackle alone, but by working collectively through LOCSU, LOCs can influence issues that would be difficult for any individual locality to influence alone.
We look forward to seeing more LOCs in the coming weeks.