Ethics and Ethical Standards for Optometrists and Opticians

This ethics course for optometrists and opticians looks at the places where optical practice is ethically different from other healthcare: you are a clinician and, very often, part of a retail business at the same time. In one day you might detect sight-threatening disease, tell a patient they must stop driving, explain why a cheaper lens would meet their needs, and handle a complaint about a pair of spectacles. The course takes those moments one by one and sets them against the General Optical Council's Standards of Practice, which were updated with effect from 1 January 2025.

It is a self-paced reading course of about two hours, with optical case illustrations, reflection points, a 15-question scenario quiz and a short written reflective account. You buy it and take it on our course portal, and you receive a certificate of completion from Healthcare Practise UK when you pass.

If you want the wider picture first, our GOC regulator page sets out the standards, the 2025 to 2027 CPD cycle and how the GOC handles concerns.

The course was written for GOC registrants and the people who work alongside them:

• Optometrists in community, domiciliary, hospital and enhanced-service settings, including independent prescribers
• Dispensing opticians and contact lens opticians
• Student optometrists and student dispensing opticians on placement or pre-registration schemes
• Registrants who have received a complaint or a letter from the GOC and want structured learning on the ethics behind it
• Practice owners and managers who are registrants and want to check that business policies support ethical practice

If your concern is mainly about how you behave as a professional over time (supervision, registration, CPD and conduct during an investigation), the companion GOC Standards of Practice course is the better first choice. Many registrants take both. Not sure which fits? Try Which course do I need?

The course has seven teaching modules, a conclusion and a reflection section. Each module ends with key points, a worked example and an "apply it" task for your own practice.

1. Ethics in optometry and optical practice

How the optical professions moved from retail trades to regulated clinical professions under the Opticians Act 1989, why the Court of Appeal case of R v Rose (2017) prompted the profession to look hard at the thoroughness of routine sight tests, and what the GOC does.

2. Core ethical principles

Autonomy and valid consent (including dilation and driving, and the Montgomery standard on material risks), acting in the patient's interest rather than a target, avoiding harm through red-flag recognition, fair treatment for NHS, private and domiciliary patients, and confidentiality, including when disclosure to the DVLA or DVA may be justified.

3. GOC standards and professional guidance

The 19 Standards of Practice, the 2025 changes (identifying yourself and your role, patients in vulnerable circumstances, sexual conduct, bullying and discrimination, communicable disease, digital technology and patient images), the Standards for Optical Businesses, CPD, and how insight and remediation feature in GOC decisions.

4. Integrity, advertising and the duty of candour

Honest clinical advice and pricing, advertising under the CAP Code, what standard 19 requires when something goes wrong, and the record-keeping expectations in standard 8.

5. Patient-centred care and shared decision-making

Shared decisions that cover both clinical choices (monitor or refer, myopia management) and product choices, communication that checks understanding, safeguarding, and capacity under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

6. Professional boundaries

Close working distance in a darkened room, explaining before touching, chaperones, the prohibition on sexual conduct, conflicts of interest such as owning a share in a clinic you refer to, patient images on social media, and handling harassment from patients.

7. Breaches of ethical standards

The breaches that most often lead to GOC action (missed referrals, records of tests never performed, target-driven sales), the GOC process from initial assessment to the Fitness to Practise Committee, and what targeted remediation looks like.

The GOC's Standards of Practice for Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians are the reference point throughout. The table shows where the main standards are covered. The standard numbers are those used in the course and in the GOC's 2025 standards; always read the current version on the GOC website, which takes precedence over any course.

The course also covers the Standards for Optical Businesses, because target and policy pressure is one of the most common reasons registrants find themselves in difficulty. You remain responsible for your own practice even when a business policy pushes the other way, and the course shows how to raise that kind of concern.

• Length: about 2 CPD hours of self-directed learning, which includes the reflection and the assessment (the figure given in the course itself).
• Format: self-paced reading with optical practice cases, reflection points and worked examples. You can pause and come back.
• Assessment: 15 scenario-based multiple-choice questions. The pass mark is 12 out of 15 (80%). If you score below that, the course tells you to revisit the sections linked to the questions you missed and try again.
• Reflective account: three prompts at the end ask what you learned, which of the 2025 changes most affects your practice, and what you will do differently. What you type is stored on your own device and not transmitted, so keep a copy with your certificate.
• Certificate: a certificate of completion issued by Healthcare Practise UK.

The course is explicit that passing the quiz supports your learning record but does not by itself demonstrate insight or remediation. That honesty matters, and it shapes how we suggest you use it.

If you are responding to a complaint or a GOC investigation, a course is one piece of evidence, not the answer. The GOC, like other regulators, looks at whether a concern has been addressed and is unlikely to happen again. Decision makers want to see that you understand what went wrong and why it mattered, and that your practice has changed. A certificate on its own shows that you read something.

1. Match the learning to the concern. If the concern is a missed referral, the course's referral and record-keeping sections are relevant; a general ethics course would not be enough by itself, and the course says so in its own worked example.
2. Write your reflection in your own words. Our reflective statement builder gives you headings and prompts, keeps the writing yours, and checks for anything that could identify a patient.
3. Show what changed in practice. The course's own example of good remediation combines targeted CPD with a new dilation protocol, an audit of 50 later records and a peer review discussion. That pattern of learning, change and evidence over time is what carries weight.
4. Add insight and reflection learning if the panel is likely to look for it. The Insight course and the Reflective Practice course focus on exactly those skills.

Take advice early from your professional body (for example the AOP, ABDO or FODO) or your indemnity provider, and from a solicitor if your case is heading to a hearing. We cannot predict any outcome, and no course can. For conduct-type concerns, our conduct and trust remediation page explains how the courses fit together.

In the 2025 to 2027 GOC cycle, registrants need at least 36 CPD points across four domains (Professionalism, Communication, Clinical practice, and Leadership and accountability), including a peer review event and a reflective exercise. Our courses are not GOC-approved CPD, so record this as self-directed learning in MyCPD and check the GOC's current guidance on how self-directed learning counts towards your cycle. The reflective account you write at the end gives you the reflection the GOC asks you to keep.

Ethics is about the decision in front of you; professionalism is about the habits that keep you safe across a career. For that reason we suggest pairing this course with the GOC Standards of Practice course, which covers supervision, delegation, enhanced roles, CPD and how to conduct yourself during an investigation. If a concern has been raised, add the Insight and Reflective Practice modules so that your learning leads to a written reflection a panel can read.

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