GOC meets all PSA Standards of Good Regulation for fourth consecutive year
The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) has today published its review of the General Optical Council’s (GOC) performance in 2024-2025. For the fourth year in a row, the GOC has met all 18 of the PSA’s Standards of Good Regulation.
The report covers the period between 1 January and 31 December 2025 and highlights several areas of work where the GOC has performed well, including:
- Its ongoing commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), including its adoption of a broader definition of vulnerability used in the new guidance Care of patients in vulnerable circumstances and the work of its Unfair Outcomes Working Group.
- Research with the public as part of its business regulation consultation to obtain a wide range of views to inform its final proposals.
- The evaluation of the impact and success of its new Continuing Professional Development (CPD) scheme and identifying learning for future cycles.
- Support for education and training providers through the extension to the contract for the Sector Partnership for Optical Knowledge and Education (SPOKE) Knowledge Hub, which has been well-received by stakeholders.
- Sustained performance in responding to illegal practice cases, consistently closing all illegal practice cases within six months of receipt and closing more cases than received each month.
The report also noted that the GOC's median timeframes in fitness to practise investigations remains some of the best among the health and social care regulators. The GOC will continue to work to maintain and improve the timeliness of its fitness to practise cases, in line with its commitment in the Strategic Plan 2025-30 and through its fitness to practise improvement programme.
Chair of Council, Dr Anne Wright CBE, said:
“I am pleased that the PSA’s latest report recognises the hard work of everyone across the GOC, and I would like to thank our staff, Council, Committee and panel members, and workers for their sustained commitment to discharging our regulatory responsibilities, which has ensured we continue to meet all 18 of the Standards of Good Regulation.
The report highlights our ongoing commitment to EDI as well as the work undertaken to increase timeliness in closing illegal practice cases since introducing an updated illegal practice protocol in 2022.
We will also carefully consider the recommendations made by the PSA to make further improvements.”
Chief Executive and Registrar, Leonie Milliner, said:
“I am delighted that for the fourth year in a row we have met all 18 of the PSA’s Standards of Good Regulation. Meeting the standards provides patients and the public, our registrants and stakeholders assurance that we are on the right path to delivering safe and effective eye care for all.
The report highlights things we are doing well, as well as where we can make further improvements, and I’d like to thank the PSA for their thorough appraisal of our operations, as well as Council, our members, workers and all GOC staff for their hard work to help us meet the standards. We will continue to develop our people and continuously improve our systems and processes to ensure we meet the standards as we enter the second year of our 2025-30 corporate strategy, and as the PSA work to introduce new Standards of Good Regulation.”
