After eight years’ membership of the General Optical Council (GOC), my term will sadly come to an end in December this year. The GOC is now recruiting my successor, and I would strongly encourage anyone who wants to influence our professions to apply.
The GOC has certainly changed a lot in my eight years, during which I have worked with four chairs and three registrars. The Council is now smaller and more board-like than when I started, and focuses on its strategic role and holding the executive to account, rather than representing the professions or the different parts of them.
The forthcoming move from Harley Street to a modern office in Farringdon will also be a key part of this modernisation.
In my time on the Council I was involved in a lot of key decisions, and the professions have changed a lot in the last eight years too. Enhanced services are more widespread, the changes to CET are encouraging more interaction between practitioners and there are more universities offering optometry courses.
Over the last year it has been a pleasure to chair the GOC’s stakeholder group to develop a code of practice for online supply of contact lenses, working with a wide range of stakeholders.
External forces can often affect expectations of how the GOC regulates – whether from reports such as the Shipman or Francis Inquiries, or the recommendations of Government or the Professional Standards Authority. We must always learn from these, but ensure we act on them in a proportionate way that reflects the relatively low risk of our professions.
For example, I remember a lot of concern in the professions at the prospect of revalidation, but our enhanced CET scheme, with its emphasis on peer review and interactivity, has been a proportionate response which the professions have now really embraced.
I have been privileged to serve on the GOC. I’ve found it to be very stimulating and have worked with some truly remarkable people. The opportunity to help shape the future direction and regulation of your chosen profession is enticing, and I’d encourage anyone who wishes to do so to apply. The vacancy closes on July 21. To find out more and apply, click here.
Rob Hogan, Optometrist and outgoing GOC Council member