Vision UK Eye Health and Sight Loss Charity

Date:13 February 2018

Title of Report:Delivery Plan: Strategic Panels and Delivery Board

Authors:Matt Broom, Director

Purpose:For information

Confidential:No

1.Overview

Vision UK’s strategy is to create a movement for change in the eye health and sight loss sectors by mobilising our unique partnerships and alliances around four transformational areas. The Delivery Board will convene in mid/late March and the four strategic panels will convene in April.

This paper is to consider the changes to the structures which were set up by VISION 2020 UK and how they are kept or altered to fit in with the new strategy of Vision UK.

2.Vision UK Delivery Board:

The Vision UK Delivery Board will:

Provide an executive steer and leadership to the delivery of key strategic priorities as developed within strategic panels.
Foster and advance cross sector partnerships to further enhance the partnerships ambitions.
Agree delivery schedules and monitor progress across the partnerships activities and in particular in ensuring tangible progress in delivery.

It will be an advisory committee bringing together the chairs of our fourstrategic panels and leading executives from key stakeholder organisations.

Working on the basis of the VISION 2020 UK Charities Forum membership, the Vision UK Delivery Board will consist of Senior Executive Representatives (including key CEOs) from the member organisations of Vision UK or appropriate experts from outside organisations.

Members of the Delivery Board are expected to have a formal method of feeding information to and from their organisations for comment and action. Representatives will be expected to represent not only themselves but their organisations within this group.

The Delivery Board will act outside of the 4 strategic panels but will feed in strategic ideas and project concepts to Vision UK thereby mobilising our unique partnerships and alliances around the four transformational areas.

3.Strategic Panels

Strategic emphases and panels are:

i)Epidemiology, evidence and statistics

ii)Prevention, cures and treatments

iii)Services, support and care

iv)Public understanding of eye health and sight loss

In order to effectively work towards achieving these objectives we are proposing a panel be formed for each of the strategic emphases. We visualise these panels to be senior people from inside and outside of the eye health and sight loss industry (including industry where appropriate). These panels will, via discussion and inquiry, set national strategic priorities and targets for the four headlines.

i)Epidemiology, evidence and statistics panel

Chair:Proposal of Parul Desai, The Royal College of Ophthalmologists

Purpose:

Bringing statisticians and researchers together to provide a clear national statistical picture respected by government, relevant to industry and with utility to clinical, community and social professionals and services. Recognising the necessity of clear and universally accepted epidemiological data for eye health and sight loss.

We will support initiatives that promote/deliver a comprehensive statistical picture along the eye health and sight loss pathway. Our aim in this is to achieve effective planning greater efficiency from resources/services and enhanced patient/customer outcomes by establishing comprehensive, widely endorsed and sustainably credible data sources along the eye health and sight loss pathway

Feed in from:

Vision UK Social Research Committee;
Vision UK Ophthalmic Public Health Committee;
Vision UK Children and Young People’s Committee

and

Members of Vision UK

Present committees will look to form working/ task and finish groups which will feed into the strategy.

ii)Prevention, cures and treatments

Chair:To be confirmed(To be recruited from industry and or clinical and academic bodies.)

Purpose:

To set national priorities advancing the availability and accessibility of cures, treatments and prevention interventions. To consider the barriers, development channels, treatment approval and research systems affecting the availability of cures and treatments. The panel will drive the uptake of strategies for increased effectiveness of prevention, cures and treatments in the 4 countries of the UK.

It is key to our ambition to protect and promote the nations eye health. There are multiple factors impacting this, and important that Vision UK prioritises carefully to ensure any actions are adding value and driving clarity. Our objectives in 2018/19 are focused on re-invigorating and building:

A constructive relationship with industry and in particular pharmaceutical companies, with the aim of creating a platform for impactful and ethical cross sector collaboration.
A multi-sectorial push to ensure treatments and cures are readily and appropriately available to patients in the UK.
An enquiry into the scale of UK sourced investment into eye research, with the particular intention of identifying weaknesses and possible fixes in the existing structures, policies and investment strategies underlying this.

There are of course a number of other related areas that could be pursued, particular in the area of primary eye care and prevention, that at the time of writing are owned and in discussion within those areas of our stakeholder community.

Feed in from:

Engaging industry and academe; and
Members of the Vision UK Eye research Committee

The present committee will be closed but Vision UK will look to form collaborative working/task and finish groups with the membership.

iii)Services, support and care

Chair: Jenny Pearce, Chair of Vision UK Rehabilitation Committee

Purpose:

To establish a national framework and priorities focused on ensuring VI people get the services they need in a timely, efficient and impactful way.

Addressing the mechanisms, partnerships, commissions and organisations the provide services, the panel will aim to convene initiatives with the voluntary sector and statutory providers that improve the co-ordination, effectiveness and shared planning of delivery infrastructures.

The scale, focus, delivery pathways and collaborations in the support and social care part of the sight loss pathway are inadequate to meet the scale and diversity of support needs growing in the population. Our aim is to ensure all people affected by sight loss and problems with eye health have access to the services and support they need regardless of where they live or their economic status. To achieve this we believe there is a need for:

A better deal for blind and visually impaired people from the existing voluntary sector structures, and in particular this should be pursued through improved planning and service targeting processes.
A new relationship with Local Authorities and other related local commissioners, to achieve a shared planning approach to meet the needs of local populations.

Feed in from:

Vision UK RehabilitationCommittee;

Vision UK Dementia, Learning Disabilities and Sight Loss Committee;

Vision UK Children and Young People’s Committee

and

Vision UK Technology Committee

iv)Public understanding of eye health and sight loss

Chair: To be confirmed

Purpose:

To work with groups such as National Eye Health week and Frontline specialists Optometrists, Dispensing Opticians etc. including industry (i.e. the large Optometric providers) to increase to public health messaging and general understanding of eye health and sight loss to improve the nations sight

Feed in from:

The Vision UK Ophthalmic Public Health Committee; and
Members of the Vision UK Social Research Committee.

Straetgic Panels feed in and Overlaps

The above picture shows four interlocking circles showing the four Strategic panels of Vision UK with the titles and showing how information will feed into them and the overlaps of information sources feeding in.

Epidemiology, evidence and statistics feed in from the Vision UK Social Research Committee and the Vision UK Children and Young People’s Committee.
Prevention, cures and treatments feed in from: Engaging industry and academe; andMembers of the Vision UK Eye Research Committee.
Services, support and carefeed in from: the Vision UK Rehabilitation Committee; Vision UK Dementia, Learning Disabilities and Sight Loss Committee; and Vision UK Technology Committee, Vision UK Social Research Committee and the Vision UK Children and Young People’s Committee
Public understanding of eye health and sight loss feed in fromMembers of the Vision UK Social Research Committee and the Vision UK Ophthalmic Public Health Committee.

At the intersection between theEpidemiology, evidence and statisticsand Public understanding of eye health and sight loss is the Vision UK Ophthalmic Public Health Committee and the Vision UK Social Research Committee

At the intersection between the Epidemiology, evidence and statisticsand Services, support and careis the Vision UK Children and Young People’s Committee and Members of the Vision UK Social Research Committee.

At the intersection between all 4 circles is Members of Vision UK.