2024-25 annual report published

We have published our annual report for the year ending March 2025, which sets out our achievements of meeting our strategic objectives of creating fairer and more inclusive eye care services, supporting responsible innovation and protecting the public, and preventing harm through agile regulation.  

Highlights from the report include:     

• For the third year in a row, we met all 18 of the Professional Standards Authority’s (PSA) Standards of Good Regulation, providing assurance to patients, the public, and registrants that we are discharging our regulatory duties effectively.  

• We implemented our revised Standards of Practice, which reflect changing patient expectations in the context of changes in the sector and in service delivery in each part of the United Kingdom.  

• We received approval as an external quality assurance provider for the dispensing optics apprenticeship standard by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), enabling more providers to offer dispensing optician apprenticeships and therefore increase student numbers.  

• Concluding the final year of the 2022-24 CPD cycle, with 98% of registrants meeting their requirements, which is slightly higher than previous years and shows registrants have adapted to the new scheme. 

• Strengthening our standards of practice to improve care for patients in vulnerable circumstances, following findings from our public perceptions research which showed that the most vulnerable patients experience significantly worse outcomes. 

• Supporting registrants experiencing harassment, bullying, abuse and discrimination by introducing tougher standards that explicitly reference behaviour between colleagues and require optical businesses to put in place support for registrants who have experienced discrimination, bullying or harassment in the workplace. 

• Seeking views on a modernised model of business regulation that would extend regulation to all businesses providing specified restricted functions and conducting our second survey with business registrants, which showed innovation is common across registered businesses with an increasing uptake of digital technologies. 

• We achieved a Bronze TIDEmark award from the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (ENEI) in recognition of our progress in EDI, particularly our strength in EDI strategy and planning. 

• We invested in our digital platforms, including work on developing a new website and a new, updated MyGOC platform to offer improved user experiences for registrants and better customer service.  

• Developing our new corporate strategy for 2025-30, which included a revised mission and new vision of ‘safe and effective eye care for all’, as well as three new strategic objectives. 

• We announced our office move to One Canada Square in Canary Wharf, East London, which offers a smaller, more cost-effective space which will support our more collaborative, agile, hybrid working style, and offers excellent transport connections. 

View the 2025 Annual Report.