CET Rules consultation

Closed 28 Jan 2021

Opened 17 Dec 2020

Contact

Angharad Jones

(Policy Manager)

02075803898

ajones@optical.org

Feedback updated 24 Sep 2021

We asked

We ran a public consultation seeking stakeholder views on changes we intend to make to our Continuing Education and Training (CET) Rules 2005 (amended in 2012). We are amending our CET Rules in order to underpin the changes that we will introduce at the start of the new three year Continuing Professional Development (CPD) cycle in January 2022.
 

You said

We received 57 responses in total, with 19 from organisations and 38 from individuals. These are some of the key findings. 

  • The majority of respondents, 59%, agreed that the amended CET Rules reflected the changes we are seeking to make to the scheme in January 2022.
  • The majority of respondents, 62%, thought that the amendments made to the CET Rules were clear.
  • Greater clarity was needed on what the CET provider fee, currently set at £45 a year, would be, if this was removed.
  • Greater clarity was needed on the ability of registrants to obtain up to 50% of their CPD points from non-approved GOC providers in future.
  • Greater clarity was needed about what the GOC expected from registrants in relation to the new requirement to undertake a reflective activity.
  • Some dispensing opticians were concerned about introducing a new peer review requirment for this group of registrants. 

We did

We would like to thank all those who responded to the consultation and we have taken on board all the feedback received. The next steps will be for us finalise the amended CET Rules then present this consultation report and the amended Rules to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). In order to amend our CET Rules we will need legislative change including approval from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Privy Council.

 

Results updated 24 Sep 2021

GOC's consultation report 

Files:

Overview

This consultation seeks stakeholder views on changes we intend to make to our Continuing Education and Training (CET) Rules 2005 (amended in 2012). We are amending our CET Rules in order to underpin the changes that we will introduce at the start of the new three year Continuing Professional Development cycle in January 2022.

This consultation gives stakeholders an opportunity to review our draft amended CET Rules and to provide feedback before we progress with legislative change.

Please see the bottom of this page under 'related' for the document containing the draft amendments to the CET Rules.

Why your views matter

We have consulted extensively with stakeholders over changes we intend to make to our current CET scheme. Our aim is to make the scheme more flexible and less prescriptive, allowing registrants greater freedom to undertake learning and development which is relevant to their own personal scope of practice.

We ran a public consultation in 2018 and more recently another consultation from 28 May to 20 August 2020. On 14 November 2020 we sought approval from the GOC’s governing Council to progress with the following changes:

  • Replacing the competencies which currently underpin the scheme, to the Standards of Practice for Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians.
  • Allowing registrants more control over their learning and development and the ability to tailor it to their own personal scope of practice. 
  • Enhancing requirements for registrants to reflect on their practice.
  • Changing the name of the scheme from CET to Continuing Professional Development (CPD). In line with this, from here on in this consultation, we will refer to any future scheme and activities within it as ‘CPD’, and the current CET arrangements as ‘the current scheme’.
  • Introducing a new proportionate system of CPD approvals.
  • Consult on a new requirement in our Rules to introduce peer review for dispensing opticians. This would be the same requirement that we currently have for optometrists and contact lens opticians, who are required to do one peer review activity in every three year cycle.  
  • Remove reference in the Rules specifying a set fee of £45 payable by CET providers annuallly to the GOC, instead allowing Council to set the fee at their discretion.

This consultation gives stakeholders an opportunity to review the amended CET Rules to ensure that they do not have any unintended consequences or impact and we welcome any feedback. Once this consultation has ended, we will analyse all the responses before finalising the draft amendments. We will present the amended CET Rules, along with the consultation outcome, to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). In order to amend our Rules we will need legislative change including approval from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Privy Council.