CPD for Opticians and Optometrists in the UK

This informal article provides an introduction to CPD for Opticians and optometrists, including an overview of the continuing education and training scheme, the CET requirements and information about the General Optical Council.

Continuing Education and Training (CET)

Continuing Education and Training (CET) is an essential requirement for eye care practitioners, helping them in maintaining the up to date skills and knowledge needed to practise safely and effectively throughout their career. The General Optical Council currently oversees a mandatory Continuing Education and Training (CET) scheme. CET is a statutory requirement for all fully-qualified optometrists and dispensing opticians. The Continuing Education and Training (CET) scheme is a points-based scheme that runs over a three-year cycle from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2021.

The current CET scheme was introduced in 2013 and covers both continuing professional development and revalidation. The optical sector has changed a lot since then and the work optometrists and dispensing opticians carry out has expanded and diversified. The General Optical Council want to make sure that their Continuing Education and Training (CET) scheme evolves and continues to maintain the safety and quality of care patients receive. 

CET is changing to CPD as of 2022

In terms of CPD for opticians, it has been decided to rebrand all Continuing Education and Training (CET) activities to CPD activities in 2022 and also create a new scheme that encourages and supports more genuine lifelong learning and development throughout a registrant’s professional career. This should allow professionals to have more control over their learning and development enabling them to tailor their professional development to their own scope of practice.

General Optical Council

The General Optical Council is one of 13 organisations in the UK known as a health and social care regulator. They oversee the health and social care professions by regulating individual professionals. The General Optical Council are the regulator for the optical professions in the UK and currently register around 30,000 optometrists, dispensing opticians, student opticians and optical businesses. They set standards, hold a register, quality assure education and investigate complaints.

They are in charge of regulating:

• Optometrists
• Dispensing opticians
• Student opticians
• Optical businesses 

The General Optical Council have four core functions:

• Setting standards for optical education and training, performance and conduct.
• Approving qualifications leading to registration.
• Maintaining a register of individuals who are qualified and fit to practice, train or carry on business as optometrists and dispensing opticians.
• Investigating and acting where registrants’ fitness to practice, train or carry on business is impaired. 

It is a legal requirement that Optometrists and dispensing opticians register with the General Optical Council in order to be able to practise. If they do not, they are breaking the law and may be prosecuted. Optometry and dispensing optics students in the UK must also register with the General Optical Council. Unregistered students who carry out restricted acts (eg testing sight) may face prosecution.

What are the CET requirements for Opticians and Optometrists in the UK?

A common question raised is what are the CET requirements for Opticians and Optometrists in the UK? Well according to The General Optical Council, the CET requirements differ by professional group and the point at which the registrant joined the register during the CET cycle. The point’s requirement is adjusted for registrants joining after 1 January 2019.

From 1 January 2019 – 31 December 2021 the CET requirements for optometrists to register with The General Optical Council are as follows: 

1. You are required to obtain 36 points during this cycle.
2. You must achieve a minimum of 18 points through interactive CET.
3. You are expected to obtain at least six points per year but they would encourage you to do more than this in order to spread your learning evenly across the three-year cycle.
4. You must cover all of the optometrist competencies.
5. You must participate in at least one peer review event which must be approved for optometrists.
6. You must create a scope of practice statement and at least one learning goal.  

Also from 1 January 2019 – 31 December 2021 the CET requirement for dispensing opticians are as follows:

1. You are required to obtain 36 points during this cycle.
2. You must achieve a minimum of 18 points through interactive CET.
3. You are expected to obtain at least six points per year but they would encourage you to do more than this in order to spread your learning evenly across the three-year cycle.
4. You must cover all of the dispensing optician competencies.
5. You must create a scope of practice statement and at least one learning goal. 

CPD for Opticians and Optometrists

As well as completing CPD training courses and events in the UK, opticians and optometrists of the General Optical Council can complete CPD that is held outside the UK. If you would like CPD to count toward your overall CET point’s requirement, you must gain approval of the event or conference before you attend. If you do not get the CPD approved, it may not count toward your total.

How to manage your CPD requirements

A frequent question we are asked in relation to Continuing Professional Development is how to manage my CPD effectively? We consider one of the most effective ways to be the CPD Cycle. Essentially, the CPD Cycle is a practical tool that helps structure your annual CPD plan, learning objectives and outcomes. Using the CPD Cycle can help make it easy to manage your CPD learning effectively and keep up to date with any industry developments.

Become a CPD training provider 

We hope this brief overview article was helpful. If you are an optician or optometrist in the UK and are thinking of applying CPD accreditation to your existing training courses and educational events, please visit our become a CPD provider page or contact our team to discuss in more detail. Alternatively please visit the Healthcare & Medical CPD Hub to find CPD providers, courses and events from across the sectors.