GOC: CPD cycle and fitness to practise for optical professionals

The GOC moved to its current cycle on 1 January 2025. These are the requirements as the GOC states them on its CPD introduction page.

If anything in this table differs from what you see in MyCPD, MyCPD and the GOC's guidance win. Rules can change between cycles, and the GOC publishes its own guidance for exceptional circumstances such as extended leave.

Most CPD problems we hear about are timing problems: plenty of learning, but not in the right mix, or a peer review left until the final months. A simple plan avoids that.

1. Write your personal development plan early. The GOC expects it at the start of the cycle. Base it on your actual work: the patients you see, the equipment you use and any feedback you have had.
2. Aim for at least 6 points a year. Spreading points across 2025, 2026 and 2027 matches the GOC's expectation and leaves room if a year goes badly.
3. Book interactive CPD first. The 18 interactive points, and the 18 provider points that make self-directed CPD count, are the parts you cannot do alone at the last minute.
4. Check your domains each year. One point in each domain is the minimum. Leadership and accountability is the domain people most often find they have missed.
5. Do the peer review event in the first two years. It gives you time to write the reflection statement properly.
6. Keep reflection notes as you go. Short, dated notes make the end-of-cycle reflective exercise with a peer much easier.

Our free CPD and revalidation tracker lists the GOC requirements as a checklist and keeps a running total of your points and interactive points from the start of your cycle. Everything you enter stays in your browser. For reflection statements, the reflective statement builder gives you structured prompts so the words stay your own.

Three GOC standards took effect on 1 January 2025, at the start of the current cycle: the Standards of Practice for Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians, the Standards for Optical Students and the Standards for Optical Businesses. The GOC says most existing standards were unchanged. The new or strengthened areas include:

• better care for patients in vulnerable circumstances;
• telling patients who you are, your role and who will provide their care;
• maintaining appropriate professional boundaries, with sexual conduct with patients prohibited;
• inclusive behaviour between colleagues, and employers supporting staff who face discrimination, bullying or harassment;
• keeping up with digital technology and using professional judgement with the data it produces;
• protecting confidentiality when patient images are shared online;
• showing leadership, for example by supporting the education and training of others.

These are the standards a fitness to practise panel will look at if a concern is raised, so they are also the best checklist for your own development plan.

Two of our courses are written specifically for optical practice. Three shorter core modules work for any profession and are the backbone of most remediation plans.

Professionalism and Professional Standards for Optometrists and Opticians

Works through the GOC Standards of Practice and the Standards for Optical Businesses: knowledge and competence, safety and quality, communication and public trust. It covers boundaries in optical practice, including commercial pressures, conflicts of interest and social media, then what happens when standards are breached and how remediation works. A good fit for the Professionalism and the Leadership and accountability domains.

Ethics and Ethical Standards for Optometrists and Opticians

Applies the four core ethical principles to consent, patient choice and confidentiality in optical settings. It covers advertising and how you represent yourself to the public, the duty of candour when something goes wrong, record keeping, boundaries, and how insight and remediation are weighed in regulatory decisions.

Insight, reflection and remediation modules

The Module on Insight explains what insight is and how regulators assess it. The Module on Reflection teaches structured reflective writing, including anonymisation. The Module on Remediation walks through root cause analysis and building a remediation plan you can evidence. Each takes about 2 hours.

Prices are shown live from our course portal, where you buy and take every course.

A letter from the GOC is stressful, and the urge to do something straight away is normal. Before you send anything, speak to your professional body, your indemnity provider or a solicitor. They can tell you what the regulator needs at your stage and what it does not.

Then work steadily: understand the concern, choose learning that addresses it, reflect honestly, and keep dated evidence of how you practise now. Nothing on this site is legal advice, and no course or tool can predict or change a panel's decision. What they can do is help you show clearly what you have learned.