Designer Glasses in Glasgow: How to Choose Frames That Last
28 September 2026
08:04
Try this at your next committee meeting. Ask how many of your senior squad have had an eye test in the last two years.
Nobody will know. Not because your club is badly run, but because it is not a question clubs have ever been prompted to ask. You know who has done their concussion module. You probably know who has a first aid qualification and when the defibrillator was last checked. Vision has simply never been on the list.
It is a strange gap, because vision is doing continuous work in every sport your members play, and because in Scotland the fix is mostly already paid for.
Three things combine, and none of them are anyone’s fault.
The result is a squad in which a meaningful minority are playing with correction that is out of date, or none at all, and where the individual has quietly adapted around it.
We are not going to invent statistics for your club, and we would be sceptical of anyone who quoted you a precise national figure for this. What we can tell you is the pattern we see in practice.
This is where most committees expect a catch. There is not one.
NHS-funded eye examinations in Scotland are available to anyone living in the UK. The standard interval is every two years, and annually for people under 16, aged 60 or over, or who have diabetes. Supplementary examinations are available between routine checks where there is a problem with the eyes or the optometrist recommends one.
So for the large majority of your squad, the examination is already funded. The barrier was never money. It was that nobody had thought about it, and that booking an appointment is the sort of task that slides down a list indefinitely.
That is genuinely the whole insight behind this. Remove the prompt problem and most of the gap closes by itself.
It is worth being clear about what we are not proposing. We are not setting up a clinic in your changing room, and we are not asking your members to be screened in a corridor. A proper eye examination takes forty minutes and cannot be done at a pitch.
What we are proposing is much simpler.
|
Stage |
What happens |
Committee effort |
|---|---|---|
|
The two questions |
Players answer when they last had a test and whether they wear correction |
Circulate a form or ask at a session |
|
The numbers back |
We tell you what proportion of the squad is overdue |
None |
|
Booking made easy |
Priority appointment slots for club members |
Share a link or phone number |
|
Sport-specific advice |
Eyewear guidance for those who need it |
None |
|
The talk |
Injury prevention and performance, 20 to 30 minutes |
Give us a slot you already run |
|
Aggregate report |
How many attended, no individual detail |
Read one short email |
The two questions are: when did you last have an eye test, and do you wear glasses or contact lenses. That is it. From that we can tell your committee what proportion of the squad is overdue, and we make it easy for those people to do something about it.
A welfare officer should ask about this, so here is the position in plain terms.
If your club would rather run the two-question check itself and simply pass us the totals, that works too. We are not precious about who holds the form.
They come in for a normal appointment. Ours run a full forty minutes and include OCT retinal imaging, carried out by a GOC and Independent Prescribing registered optometrist. It is an eye examination rather than a screening, which matters because most of what is worth finding is not found by reading a chart.
If they need correction and they play sport, we will talk about what suits their discipline, which is a different conversation from what suits their desk. That is set out sport by sport in our sports eyewear guide, and the protective side is covered in our article on protective eyewear for club sport.
And if their vision is fine, we tell them it is fine and they go back to training. That is a good result, not a wasted appointment.
The reason initiatives like this fail is almost always that they generate committee admin. So a few practical notes.
This is one part of the club partnership we are offering to rugby, football and cycling clubs across Glasgow. The other elements are eyewear advice, an injury prevention talk, and guidance on the eye test and duty of care questions a committee should be asking. A club can take all of it or just this.
Book your comprehensive eye examination or eyewear styling consultation with
Mosspark Opticians today.
In Scotland, NHS-funded eye examinations are generally available every two years for adults, and annually for people aged 60 or over, under 16, or who have diabetes. Supplementary examinations are available between routine checks if there is a problem or your optometrist recommends one. For most adults, every two years is the right rhythm.
NHS-funded eye examinations in Scotland are available to anyone living in the UK, at the intervals above. That is more generous than the rest of the UK, where eligibility is based on specific criteria. It means that for most members of a sports club, cost is not the barrier to getting checked.
A two-question check across your squad: when did you last have an eye test, and do you wear glasses or contact lenses. From the answers we tell your committee what proportion of the squad is overdue and make it straightforward for those players to book. It is not a clinic and it is not a screening at the pitch.
For the committee, minutes rather than hours. The two questions attach to something you already collect, such as registration or your start-of-season medical form. We handle the rest, including reminders, so it does not become another item on your secretary’s list.
No. Clinical information belongs to the individual and goes to the player, not to the club, the coach or the committee. The club receives aggregate figures only, such as how many people responded and how many attended, with no names attached to any finding.
Yes, and juniors are often where it matters most, because children rarely identify a vision problem themselves and a school screening is not a full eye examination. Anything involving under-18s runs through your existing safeguarding policy, with parental consent and parents present as your policy requires.
They get a prescription and a conversation about what actually suits their sport, which is different from what suits everyday wear. Options include impact resistant sports frames, contact lenses, or prescription goggles depending on the discipline. Nobody is obliged to buy anything from us.
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