Modernising continuing education within optics is proving to be a more time-consuming task than expected.
Last week, the General Optical Council shelved plans for a one-year transition period before a new scheme is introduced, allowing for more time.
Now it will revert to another three-year cycle between 2019-21 but promised ‘significant changes’ from 2022.
During a council meeting where the turnaround was agreed, members were in wide agreement that CET needed to be more about professional development than box ticking and point scoring. There was also concern that around 6,000 registrants are still yet to complete enough points for the current cycle, ahead of the December 31 deadline (see table 1).
Optical bodies frustrated with the CET cycle uncertainty, amid efforts to align with the regulator’s ongoing Education Strategic Review (ESR), broadly welcomed the decision to pull back on the one-year plans.
AOP chief executive Henrietta Alderman said: ‘We are keen to see the GOC’s CET scheme become more flexible and self-directed, to support optical professionals in taking on expanded clinical roles.
‘But during the past six months we have become increasingly concerned that the GOC would not meet the ambitious reform timetable it had set itself. In September we urged the GOC to urgently review whether it could deliver reforms in time for 2020 – and advised that if not, it should drop its plans for a transitional year.’
She said the GOC’s decision had arrived very late for education providers and practitioners.
‘We hope and expect that the GOC will learn lessons about the need for its major policy projects to be carefully planned, given the impact that late changes can have on us and those they regulate,’ Alderman added.
ABDO general secretary Sir Anthony Garrett said: ‘We welcome the decision by the GOC to start a new three-year CET cycle from January. The proposed one-year option was not satisfactory at all and would have sent the wrong message to registrants.
Table 1: Latest figures from the GOC suggest around a quarter are yet to hit their CET target for the 20116-18 cycle
‘ABDO has consistently lobbied the GOC to postpone the introduction of a new system until the education review has been completed. It is very welcome that the GOC has shown that it is open to change. We look forward to working with the GOC to develop a better CET/CPD system starting in 2022.’
A latest CET consultation included some feedback that CET providers were concerned they would not be able to meet the requirements of a revised system by January 2020.
GOC interim director of education Dr Subo Shanmuganathan (pictured) said: ‘There is a widespread recognition in the sector that CET needs to change to meet the challenges of the future and we want that to happen quickly.
‘But our recent discussions with key stakeholders suggest that January 2020 – which would have come only a matter of months after a consultation next year – would have been too soon for providers and registrants to adequately prepare. Change is important but the consultation does not suggest that the need for change is so urgent that we should rush change through before providers are ready.
‘So instead, the next CET cycle will be another three-year cycle with the same requirements we have at the moment. This will give us the time to make long-term changes in a considered, evidence-based way that allows providers to make the necessary preparation for January 2022 and registrants to prepare themselves for a scheme that will have a greater emphasis on reflective learning.’
Analysis of a latest CET consultation by independent research agency Enventure was presented at last week’s quarterly GOC meeting at 10 Old Bailey.
In total, Enventure analysed 994 responses from 973 individuals and 21 organisations to the ‘Fit for the Future: Lifelong Learning Review’ on the evolution of the existing CET scheme. The consultation responses were collected using the Citizen Space platform from July 18 to September 11.
As a whole, organisational responses were found to be less positive than individuals, Enventure reported.
A majority of responders, 82%, agreed the current scheme kept registrants up to date with current practice, with 77% saying it helped to ‘plug gaps’ in their knowledge.
When asked about risks in the optical sector and the role of revalidation, among the categories mentioned were missed pathology, among 25%, identifying and managing eye disease, 17%, and referrals and triaging for 13%.
Two-thirds of respondents agreed the current CET scheme promoted and embedded a culture of ‘lifelong learning’. However, seven of 17 organisations disagreed with this statement, while nine disagreed the name ‘Continuing Education and Training’ helped promote this culture.
Meanwhile, a significant proportion of additional comments suggested that the name ‘continuing professional development’ (CPD) would be more appropriate, particularly given that this term is widely used in other healthcare professions.
Three-quarters of respondents agreed with the GOC’s proposed approach of giving optometrists and dispensing opticians more control over their learning and development, including 12 of 19 organisations. However, some comments warned that this approach may risk registrants becoming too specialised or avoiding topics that were not of interest.
For example, Optometry Northern Ireland said allowing practitioners to fully design their own learning and development might mean that they de-skilled in some areas.
Aligning CET requirements for optometrists and dispensing opticians was another focus of the review.
This included peer review, which three in five respondents agreed should play a more central role in the scheme. More than half, 55%, agreed with the principle that the GOC should introduce peer review for dispensing opticians, although the inequality of funding between optometrists and DOs remained problematic.
While a small proportion of respondents identified difficulties in the proposed one-year transition period towards CET reform, the largest proportion of 49% said there would be little or no impact. ‘It is not an unreasonable target to meet in a year,’ one optometrist said.
Nevertheless, Council members rallied behind reverting to a three-year pattern. It means the GOC will instead consult next year on changes to CET coming into effect for the 2022-24 cycle.
In the meantime, the regulator was changing its MyCET online system to be more user-friendly from January 2019, ‘particularly on portable devices’. Work would be delivered by the current MyCET provider Synaptiq after the GOC tendered for the contract in April of this year.
Meanwhile, registrants in the current cycle are being ushered toward their points tally. A spokesperson for the GOC added: ‘The rate of registrants meeting their requirements is similar to at this point in the last cycle, although DOs are running slightly behind. We are confident that the vast majority of registrants will meet their requirements by the December 31 deadline but time is starting to run out and it is therefore important that registrants who still need to meet their requirements do so quickly, particularly because many providers will close over Christmas.’