“You Have Superpowers!”: NOC25 Inspires LOCs To Lead Transformational Change
22 May 2025
As the curtain falls on NOC25, the 250 delegates from across England are reflecting on the conference theme “Leadership in a Time of Change”, which was designed to help inspire LOCs to seize leadership opportunities in a dynamic healthcare landscape.
Opening the conference, LOCSU Chair Joy Tweed emphasised the importance of LOCs in influencing locally, saying: “You all have a crucial role to play to ensure that commissioners recognise how optical practices on the high street can assist in achieving the government’s three big shifts: moving care from hospital to community, making better use of technology, and focus on prevention, rather than on sickness. We know the better use of our profession will improve patient outcomes.”
“It is through sharing and harnessing the power of the LOC community that we will build the evidence to lead change. We know that your work and that of our valued colleagues in practices, will change lives. We appreciate and thank you for this. Together we will ensure that others recognise this too.”
Next, delegates heard from Professor Sally Lewis, who is a renowned expert in system-based healthcare. Sally shared her conviction that we need a new style of systems leadership to effectively transform healthcare in the environment we face today. She believes that eye care professionals in primary care have many of the skills and attributes needed to lead from the grassroots to deliver the change we need to see. In fact, she says “they have superpowers”.
Talking to LOCSU after her keynote, Sally said: “In particular, I think that primary care optometry is really good at managing uncertainty and making decisions in uncertain times. They have agility, they’re innovative and that’s exactly what we need to see leading in the system to see the changes we need to make to meet the changing needs of our population.”
Sally praised the sector’s world-leading thought leadership, saying: “Now we just need to coax the system into executing what you know needs to be done for integrated eye care pathways and to improve eye care for the population, so don’t give up!”
LOCSU Introduces Three Key Pledges To Support Its Strategy
“The time for change isn’t tomorrow, it’s now. We transform, we shape, we lead. Together.”
LOCSU CEO Janice Foster summed up the urgency and opportunity for LOCs as she shared the new LOCSU 2025 – 2028 strategy, ‘LOCs: Shaping the Future of Local Eye Care’. She exhorted the connected LOC community to “drive collaboration and innovation to protect optical practices, […] unite expertise to create meaningful change and expand services, […] and commit to a shared vision, sustainable, future-ready and built on strong leadership.”
Janice introduced LOCSU’s three key pledges to LOCs: enhance, enable and empower. She outlined how LOCSU will enhance LOCs’ operations with support to optimise committee efficiency and succession planning; enable LOCs to influence commissioners and stakeholders to make a difference to patients; and empower LOCs in strategy development to plan for the future of local eye care.
During the afternoon, delegates took part in workshops on a wide range of topics from LOC constitutions to communication before enjoying the NOC dinner and dance. 2024 LOC Leadership Skills course graduates received their certificates during the evening. You can hear from two graduates on their experience of the course here.
Day Two: Regional Round-Up and Marketplace
The second day of the conference saw more chances for delegates to share best practices and learn of the LOC work taking place across the seven regions in England. All LOC regions come together through a national forum. LOCSU Non-Executive Director (LOC Representative), Nottinghamshire LOC Chair and National Forum Chair Roma Malik – explains how the forum works: “It’s another means of ensuring LOC voices are heard. Every region elected a representative who reaches out to every LOC asking for feedback as to what’s going well, what’s not going well and what support they need, and this is fed back at the national forum.” It helps to identify common challenges and address barriers to ensure everyone is being supported.
For the first time, the NOC included a marketplace featuring 17 stands showcasing LOC and primary care optometry best practice. The market place offered opportunities for delegates to engage with colleagues from across England and industry leaders. This was an excellent way for delegates to network and follow-up on topics raised during the presentations and workshops, taking away ideas and tips to implement in their LOC.
National knowledge-sharing continued in the afternoon, when delegates heard from representatives from primary care optometry in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This perspective on the four nations provided insight across the whole of the UK and Ireland, highlighting areas of commonality and difference. This wider picture is especially valuable in the context of cross-border working and patient experiences.
Closing the conference was keynote speaker Timothy Bradshaw. Tim drew on his experience as a former army intelligence officer to talk about leadership and building resilience within ourselves, and within our teams. He highlighted the importance of influence and persuasion, explaining how we can communicate with others to compel action in challenging situations, as well as the value of micro-goals. These are all takeaways that aligned with the NOC theme of ‘leading in a time of change’.
Reflecting on the conference, CEO Janice said: “It’s been a fantastic couple of days with so many delegates – over 250 people from across England sharing everything that’s going on in their area. What better way to bring together the great work of LOCs.”
Hayley from Oxfordshire LOC says, “I always come away feeling really energised, so many ideas going through my head. […] In this environment surrounded by so many like-minded people with so many good ideas I always come away really buzzing so I’m going to go away and implement the ideas.
“Whether it be positive, challenging, whatever it may be, just thinking we’re all in this together and our challenges aren’t just our own brings comfort in numbers.”
To anyone who didn’t attend this year’s NOC and considering it in future, Hayley says: “Just do it! My first one I was so nervous […] but it’s such a nice community. It’s just an amazing group. I definitely recommend it!”