How you can make a difference to your team and local community as a Home Visits Partner

“I’ve ended up here for a reason and I can see myself doing it until I retire.”

For 8 years, I worked in store across multiple companies. This was until Covid, where I realised what I was doing didn’t fit where I wanted my career to go anymore. I moved into domiciliary in 2021 and quickly settled into this new world, realising it was the career for me. 2-and-a-half-years later, the Specsavers Partner role in a brand-new business came up and I knew I had to take it.

I was a bit apprehensive about going into home visits because I’d never done that before, but alongside my partnership role it’s become the best decision I’ve made. The transition from store, to care homes and now to home visits has been seamless with the support of the Specsavers team. This is what I’ve worked towards since I qualified and I can see it being the rest of my career.

Being a Home Visit hero

There’s a misconception about domiciliary; people worry that it’s an unpleasant experience, but the truth is, it’s completely opposite. There are challenging patients and situations – you’d get that anywhere – but the patients we see are so grateful for our service, welcoming us into their homes. It’s by far the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I love making a difference to people’s lives by giving them what is really such a simple service, and allowing them to have access to the same care that you’d get on the high street. Many of our patients worry when they’re no longer able to travel for their sight test, but we give them everything they need, from the comfort of their favourite chair!

Our services don’t just cover the sight test – a lot of our patients are lonely, or unable to perform simple tasks at home. I’ve changed lightbulbs, posted letters and had many a brew and a chat about a patient’s family, life or career. The simple act of giving someone your time and care matters. It’s incredibly rewarding walking away from a visit knowing you’ve made a difference, no matter how small.

Supporting the next generation

We run shadow days for optical assistants and Optometrists to come out with us and see what home visits are like in real life. It’s important for people to see the challenging moments as well as the smooth sailing ones, giving them the chance to learn how reactive you have to be. Our shadow days show people how the tests work, then give them the opportunity to test the patients themselves. This really helps people build up the confidence they need to get involved in home visits.

Growing a little Specsavers family

As a Home Visits partner, it’s more difficult to build team morale than if we were in store because we don’t see each other every day. To bring the team together, we’ve introduced a breakfast club once a month, where we share ideas and updates over coffee and pastries, and we regularly communicate on Teams and WhatsApp, so everyone is kept in the loop.

My business partner Johnny and I try to vary the Optom/OA teams as much as possible so we all have an opportunity to work with everyone, helping us learn from and coach one another. We’re really proud of what we’ve built in Warrington. It’s been a big learning curve but seeing the growth of our team is amazing. From starting out as two partners, an office and a plan, to now four months later as a 15-strong team. We can’t wait to see how much more we can grow, and support other partners to do the same.

Working at Specsavers has been completely different to what I was used to in terms of how well supported and well-structured the company is, and that makes you very proud to wear the Specsavers badge. As a partner here, I feel like I own a piece of something that’s so important to so many and I can come home every day knowing I’ve done a good job.