Some more of your queries answered by Bill Harvey, with a slant towards some concerns of providers
I recently facilitated at a peer discussion event and am still awaiting my points. Is there a problem?
Participants at peer discussion events will gain three peer to peer points. A facilitator will only gain one interactive point. We have pointed this out in previous columns but I have recently become aware of some of you having to wait an unduly long time for the facilitator point to appear in your account. I have recently found out that this is because the GOC website has, as yet, no means for a provider to upload facilitator points directly. Instead, after an event has taken place, the provider should email to the GOC (jbolt@optical.org) a list of the facilitators involved together with the C and the EV codes for each individual event. Obviously, the facilitator needs to meet the requirement as suitable for facilitation so it is always a good idea for any provider to keep a list of the relevant CVs and experience of anyone facilitating at an event they are responsible for in case of request or audit.
I facilitated recently at a number of events and have been informed that my points are being capped. Is this true?
A number of readers have been made aware lately that the points they can gain from facilitating at various peer to peer events have been capped. This is actually stated in the enhanced CET guidelines and is a step taken to prevent any registrant from gaining all of their points purely by facilitating at 36 different events. Enjoyable and challenging as this might be, it is right and proper that registrants should earn CET points from a variety of modalities. The facilitator’s role is one of encouraging participation among those actively involved, so it seems reasonable to assume that the educational benefit of simply facilitating as a way of reaching the points target is questionable.
Linda Ford, head of education and standards at the GOC, confirms: ‘Facilitator points count the same as author points and therefore are capped at six per cycle. Facilitators are not considered to be participating in the same way as a delegate and do not meet the CET’s learning objectives but are there to support the other registrants to achieve the learning objectives.’
Does a contractor who keeps the CET fee need to provide six points per year, as is the required points tally annually for registrants?
A contractor who keeps the grant from the government for their registered staff does so in return for allowing the staff the time to attend CET. The annual recommendation for a contractor is 10 points accessibility per year, which is in excess of the annual six point minimum required of individual registrants. Some employers provide their own, while others allow time out for staff to attend other providers’ efforts. The grant in these cases is to cover the possible lost revenue from staffing hours. If a registrant keeps the money, then they are responsible for ensuring they achieve the required number of CET points outside the hours of employment of their contractor.
? At the point of going to press, 70 per cent of GOC registrants have achieved their six point annual minimum point requirement. If you are one of the remaining 30 per cent, now is the time to ensure you have registered at myGOC on the GOC website and confirmed any points you have achieved. Optician will be running exercises for the next few weeks, so no need to panic yet.
? William.harvey@rbi.co.uk