Our current focus

Where our priorities lie

Optometry Australia’s Strategic Plan for 2021-2024 is the blueprint of projects and goals that the organisation will concentrate on delivering during this period. These projects have been identified to evolve and sustain our sector and our organisation and that support our Optometry 2040 journey.

Optometry Australia and all state divisions jointly collaborated in creating this FY2021-2024 Shared Strategic Plan.

During the 2021-2024 period, Optometry Australia will concentrate on four key areas:

• Evolving scope of practice: We will strongly advocate for our highly-skilled optometry workforce to be utilised at their maximum scope across the health system, and for the profession’s scope of practice to evolve to meet community need.
• Continuing professional education: We will continue to provide the right education and tools accessible to all members so that they are placed in the best position to meet community eye health expectations, emergent eye health conditions and evolving scope of practice.
• Structure optimisation: As a federated organisation, we will ensure that we are generating greater efficiencies and more consistency in our member services in order to deliver exceptional member value.
• Sustainability: We will continue to have a thorough understanding of the conditions that are moulding our sector – and organisation’s – future by having the foresight to innovate through the adoption of new services, new technologies, new skills and new ways of doing business.

Underpinning these strategic areas are our pillars to:

• Lead with an influential voice: We will lead members and the profession through market and sector evolution and change to achieve the preferred future identified in Optometry 2040.
• Engage via professional aspiration:We will efficiently and effectively deliver an essential suite of member services that are tailored to meet the specific needs of specific groups within the membership.
• Promote by positioning the profession:We will ensure that Optometry Australia is the ‘go to’ organisation in eye health and that optometrists are the first port of call for eyes.
• Create an enduring organisation:We will collaborate, work effectively, share resources and capabilities to ensure consistency of services for all members through efficient and effective models that uplift the profession.

Under each strategic pillar are a set of goals that we have committed to achieving.

Lead:

• Ensure all optometrists are able to work to their full and evolving scope and that they are recognised for their expert skills within that scope.
• Ensure members have access to evidence-based advice on immediate ‘best practice’ and emerging ‘next practice’ optometry.
• Embrace a culture of innovation that leads both optometry and the health sector and that supports the development, testing and scaling of new business and operating models so that the profession can realise its preferred future.
• Support the profession in our region and actively participate in the international sector for the betterment of the Australian profession.
• Support timely access to culturally safe care across the country, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
• Explore and develop initiatives as appropriate on emerging evidence on the impact of climate change specifically on eye health.

Engage:

• Reshape our membership model so that it aligns to reflect optometrists at different stages of their careers and professional journey.
• Be the pre-eminent provider of quality continuing professional development.
• Implement a coordinated continuing professional development strategy that embraces and reflects the needs of members irrelevant of where they live within Australia.
• Develop and deliver flexible and responsive service offerings that can be tested, scaled, re-invented and retired based on changing conditions.

Promote:

• Increase public awareness, knowledge and understanding of the role of optometry in eye health in Australia and, through this, generate more optometry appointments.
• Embed optometry as an integral profession in the broad health and medical sector.
• Shape coordinated and concerted national and state advocacy and lobbying efforts as practicable and required to realise our evolving scope of practice efforts.

Enduring Organisation:

• Identify, cultivate and support current and future association leadership and through the development of high performing teams.
• Be innovative in sourcing new revenue streams and identifying funds that can be reinvested for the benefit of members.
• Optimise structure and reform the federation as required, to ensure capability to deliver on this plan.
• Use continual data, evidence and conditions monitoring to improve organisational practices.
• Introduce initiatives and programs to reduce our environmental footprint.