The PSA publishes its review of the General Optical Council’s performance for 2024/25

We have today published our annual performance review of the General Optical Council (GOC). During 2024/25, we conducted a periodic review of the GOC’s performance against the Standards of Good Regulation (the Standards).

For this period, the GOC has met 18 out of the 18 Standards. Our report explains how we made our decision. 

In 2024, we introduced a new approach to assessing regulators against our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Standard. In order to meet the Standard, regulators must assure us they are delivering the four high-level outcomes supported by our evidence matrix. The GOC continues to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to EDI. We identified no significant gaps or areas of concern. The GOC’s new guidance on Care of patients in vulnerable circumstances recognises vulnerability can arise from a person’s circumstances, not just personal characteristics, and can change over time. We view this expanded perspective on vulnerability as good practice.

The GOC met Standard 9 because we saw no evidence that students and trainees are not meeting the GOC’s requirements for registration. However, feedback from stakeholders indicated that improvements are needed to ensure the GOC’s quality assurance processes are proportionate and transparent. This is a period of significant change for the education sector as the GOC transitions to new education and training requirements and associated quality assurance arrangements. This may explain some of the feedback we received, but this is not the first year some of these issues have been reported to the PSA. The GOC acknowledged that its performance in some areas is not what it should have been and it had already started making changes to improve consistency and efficiency. We will continue to monitor the GOC’s performance in this area and the impact of the changes it is making.

We audited a sample of cases closed by the GOC during the review period to help us evaluate different aspects of the GOC’s fitness to practise function. Our findings were mixed but in most cases, there were no delays, investigations were adequate, closure decisions were reasonable and risks were identified and managed appropriately. However, we identified a number of areas for improvement:

• Some of the decisions to close cases at triage were premature or inappropriate.
• Risk assessments were not always completed when they should have been and some of them were case summaries rather than an analysis of case-specific risks.
• Parties were not always updated during the investigation. 
• The GOC’s management controls do not appear to have identified or rectified the issues our audit identified.

Most of the premature or inappropriate case closures were on cases about low-level concerns that could have reasonably been managed locally. And because most investigations were adequate and prompt, with risks being managed appropriately and we saw examples of the GOC supporting parties with sensitive case handling, we decided that the GOC met all of the Fitness to Practise Standards. However, it is clear that improvements are needed. The GOC has implemented an action plan in response to our audit findings and we will be monitoring for evidence of its impact and improvements in the areas we have highlighted.

You can find out more about the GOC’s review in our full report. You can find out more about how we review the regulators here.

The judgments we make against each Standard incorporate a range of evidence to form an overall picture of performance. Meeting a Standard means that we are satisfied that a regulator is performing well in that area. It does not mean there is no room for improvement. Similarly, finding that a regulator has met all of the Standards does not mean perfection. Rather, it signifies good performance in the 18 areas we assess.

Our oversight does not stop when we publish our report. It is an ongoing, continuous process and, where we have identified areas for improvement, we pay particular attention to these as we continue to monitor the regulator’s performance.

Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care

Contact: media@professionalstandards.org.uk