News from Council - 16 March 2022

We held our first Council meeting of the year, which covered updated education and training requirements for contact lens opticians, business plan for 2022-23, and fitness to practise audit for 2020-21. 

Approved updated requirements for contact lens opticians 

Council approved updated education and training requirements for GOC-approved qualifications for contact lens opticians.  

They replace ‘Contact Lens Handbook’ (published November 2007) and the ‘Contact Lens Speciality Core Competencies’ (published in 2011), and the policies on supervision and recognition of prior learning. 

The approval of these requirements concludes our review of optical education, and we are now focusing on working with providers to help them adapt their qualifications to meet the new outcomes and standards for optometry and dispensing optics, prescribing, and contact lens qualifications. 

Read our press release for more information.  

Business plan 2022-23 

Council approved the business plan for 2022-23, which reflects our ‘Fit for the Future’ strategy and sets out our plan for the coming year to achieve our vision of being recognised for delivering world-class regulation and excellent customer service. 

The business plan will be available on our website shortly. 

Fitness to practise audit 2020-21 

Council noted the findings from the annual audit of fitness to practise decisions, conducted by RadcliffesLeBrasseur (RLB) solicitors. This audit included decisions made between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021 and focused primarily on higher-risk decisions, for example:  

• cases closed by case examiners (CEs), by the Investigation Committee (IC) and by the Registrar at triage stage; 

• cases closed by the Fitness to Practise Committees (FtPC); and  
• decisions of the FtPC not to issue an interim order, following an application by the GOC. 

Overall, the audit found that we continue to fulfil our statutory obligations and demonstrate compliance with our processes and guidance. There were some learning points identified which were addressed at FtPC training in September 2021 and CE and IC training in November 2021. 

Next meeting 

The next Council meeting will take place on Wednesday 29 June 2022. 

Council papers 

View the March Council papers for more information.