Registrants going beyond the call of CET duty

Dispensing opticians and optometrists are going beyond the call of duty when it comes to completing CET, a report by the General Optical Council (GOC) has revealed.

Published today, the GOC’s final evaluation report of its 2016-18 CET cycle follows a review of the data it holds within its MyCET administrative online platform.

The review analysed data from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2018 in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the CET scheme, and to identify trends in registrant behaviour and any future developments required.

The report revealed that 81 per cent of registrants completed more than their minimum CET requirements for general points; 72 per cent of registrants with a peer review requirement completed more than one peer review session. Peer review is not mandatory for dispensing opticians, yet 83 per cent completed a review and more than half (57 per cent) completed more than one.

With regards to reflective practice, the data showed that registrants again exceeded the minimum practice requirements set by the GOC. In the 2016-18 CET cycle, 80 per cent of registrants had created additional learning goals other than the set minimum of one, and 60 per cent of registrants used reflection statements for activities other than peer review.

Marcus Dye, head of standards and CET, said: “We are delighted that the CET scheme continues to support the professional development of optometrists and dispensing opticians and that registrants are going above and beyond their requirements. The findings and recommendations within the evaluation report will inform improvements to the scheme, as well as the CET Review. We will be considering further ways of embedding reflective practice and ensuring flexibility to accommodate changes in scopes of practice.

“As patients’ needs are changing due to the ageing population, multi-disciplinary working and the use of technology, it is important that registrants pursue ongoing training and professional development and that the CET system meets the demands of the future,” added Marcus.

Download the report here.