Simon Jones: Much at stake

It’s well worth having a deep dive into the General Optical Council’s (GOC) stakeholder perceptions report if you have the time – all 90 pages of it.

The GOC must be credited for this exercise because some of the stakeholder comments on subjects, such as the pandemic response, sales regulation and wider adoption of technology, are quite frank, and the GOC can be in no doubt as to what stakeholders are thinking.

One of the interesting views expressed by stakeholders was the need for the GOC and its staff to have a deeper understanding of how the sector functions. Again, credit to the GOC, which has said it will build real-world experience of optometry practices and dispensing optics into the induction process of staff and council members. Some within the industry would argue that this lack of experience showed a fundamental knowledge gap to the detriment of the GOC’s overall performance, but I see it very much as a positive move where a regulator has reacted to a challenge. Embedding more sector knowledge may well lead to better working relationships with registrants.