Optometry Scotland supports the Foundation Training Year (FTY) and welcomes confirmation that supervised GOS eye examinations will attract 100% of the applicable fee. However, practices still need essential information before they can assess whether hosting a placement would be financially and operationally viable.
Our Position
Optometry Scotland supports the Foundation Training Year and is committed to helping secure a model that can deliver high-quality training and attract sufficient placements across Scotland.
Following sustained engagement by OS and the wider sector, the Scottish Government has confirmed that supervised GOS eye examinations carried out by FTY students will attract 100% of the applicable fee. We welcome this important progress.
Under the current proposal, the host practice would employ the student during a 22-week placement. The draft Terms of Participation indicate that the student would be employed and paid on a full-time basis, spending four days each week in practice and undertaking protected learning and development activity on the fifth day.
Practices would receive 100% of the applicable GOS fee and a supervisor grant in line with the current pre-registration arrangement. The Scottish Government has confirmed that this is the whole financial package, with no separate practice payment.
A number of essential questions remain unresolved, including:
- the full employer costs and contractual responsibilities associated with hosting a student
- arrangements where a placement changes, is extended or ends early
- the practical supervision requirement, including the role and capacity of IP-qualified supervisors
- clinical governance, indemnity, accountability and responsibility for patient care
- the impact on consulting-room capacity and day-to-day practice operations
- matching, absence, leave, performance and learner-support arrangements
- whether the model is viable for independent, small, rural and remote practices
- the final implementation timetable and revised placement-provider documentation
- financial viability for students requiring to relocate for placements
Until this information is available, practices cannot reliably assess the financial and operational implications of taking part.
Advice to practices
| OS does not recommend that practices complete and return the EOI at this stage. Although the EOI is described as non-binding, the draft shared with OS only provides a mechanism for practices to indicate positive interest. It does not allow a practice to express conditional interest, explain that the current package would not be financially viable, identify changes that would enable participation, or record that it is unable to participate under the current model. |
This means the EOI may not fully capture the sector’s potential capacity or the reasons why practices cannot indicate interest under the current proposal.
The final decision remains with each business, but OS believes practices should have sufficient information to make a properly informed assessment before indicating that they may be able to host a placement.
What OS is doing?
OS has supported the principle of the FTY throughout its engagement with the Scottish Government, while consistently making clear that the delivery model must be workable for practices and must not create avoidable risks for students, providers or patients.
We have provided financial modelling and practice activity data, gathered evidence from independent practices and larger providers, set out the need for 100% GOS, raised detailed written questions, met with the Scottish Government and PSD Scotland, participated in the FTY Stakeholder Group, and requested sufficient information and time for practices to consider the EOI.
The responses received to date have not resolved the key employment, supervision, governance and viability questions. We continue to seek urgent clarification and will update members as soon as further information is confirmed.
Further information
For further information on the Foundation Training Year, please visit our Policy Hub, where you can find supporting information, including Foundation Training Year FAQs and a timeline of key events and developments.
Contact
For questions or to share evidence about how the proposed model would affect your practice, contact your OS representative, regional representative or email office@optometryscotland.org.uk.