View from the GOC: Let the PSA know what you think

As a regulator it is important that we are accountable and open to scrutiny. Optician readers, most of whom pay registration fees to us, deserve that, and we are ultimately accountable to Parliament as well.

One of the main ways we are held accountable is through the annual reviews by our oversight body, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Each year they judge us against their 24 standards of good regulation, looking at our processes for our core functions of setting standards, quality assuring education, maintaining our register and handling complaints.

This year we met 22 of their 24 standards - an improvement from 21 last time with the PSA recognising significant improvements we have made in how we maintain our register of 29,000 practitioners, students and businesses. We continue to work hard to improve in the two areas where we did not meet the standards - information governance and the time we take over complaints.