Optometrists and dispensing opticians must earn at least 36 CPD points in each three-year GOC cycle, and the current cycle runs from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. At least 18 of those points must be interactive, at least 18 must come from GOC CPD providers, every one of the four core domains needs at least one point, and you must complete a peer review, a personal development plan and a reflective exercise. Optometrists with additional supply, supplementary or independent prescribing need 54 points, including 18 in their specialty.
Unlike the dental, nursing and pharmacy regulators, the General Optical Council runs a points-based scheme rather than an hours or annual-records model. This guide covers each requirement as the GOC publishes it, where self-directed learning fits, what happens if you fall short, the safeguarding expectation, and the reforms the GOC has consulted on for future cycles.
At a glance: Nexis CPD offers £9 CPD-accredited online awareness courses relevant to optical practice, such as safeguarding, infection prevention and data protection, each with a verifiable e-certificate, and any three courses cost £18. We are not a GOC CPD provider, so these count only as self-directed CPD.
What are the GOC CPD requirements?
CPD is a legal requirement for all fully qualified optometrists and dispensing opticians. The legal basis is the General Optical Council (Continuing Professional Development) Rules Order of Council 2021, in force from 1 January 2022, and the practical detail is set out in the GOC’s CPD: A guide for registrants (January 2025).
The scheme is points-based. You must earn a minimum number of points by the end of each three-year cycle to remain registered. The requirements for optometrists and dispensing opticians without a specialty are:
- At least 36 CPD points from domains 1 to 4 across the cycle
- At least 18 points through interactive CPD
- At least 18 points from GOC CPD providers
- At least one point in each of the four core domains
- At least one peer review event, followed by a reflection statement
- A personal development plan, created in MyCPD at the start of the cycle
- A reflective exercise with a peer based on that plan, by the end of the cycle
The GOC also says it expects you to obtain at least six points a year. That is worded as an expectation rather than a rule, but it exists for a good reason: registrants who leave points until year three are the ones who end up short.
The four core domains
Every CPD activity is mapped to one or more domains, and you need at least one point in each of the four:
- Professionalism
- Communication
- Clinical practice
- Leadership and accountability
The trap here is not the minimum of one point. It is clinical drift. Optometrists naturally gravitate towards clinical CPD because that is where the interesting cases are, and it is easy to reach the end of a cycle with 40 clinical points and nothing logged against leadership and accountability. One point is not much, but it has to be there.
How many CPD points do prescribing optometrists and contact lens opticians need?
Specialty registration adds a second layer.
Optometrists with additional supply (AS), supplementary prescribing (SP) or independent prescribing (IP) need at least 54 points in total: the standard 36 from domains 1 to 4, plus at least 18 from the specialty CPD domain. Their peer review must be with peers holding the same specialty registration.
Contact lens opticians need at least 36 points in total, but with a different make-up: at least 18 from domains 1 to 4 and at least 18 from the specialty domain. Their total is 36 rather than 54 because the rules allow up to 18 specialty points to count towards the general requirement. Contact lens opticians can complete their peer review with other contact lens opticians or with an optometrist.
The interactive minimum of 18 points applies to every group. For a prescribing optometrist that is a third of the 54; for everyone else it is half of the 36.
What is interactive CPD, and does self-directed learning count?
Interactive CPD is, broadly, learning in which you engage with other people rather than learning alone: peer review and discussion-based sessions are the obvious examples. The guide for registrants sets out exactly which activity types qualify, and it is worth checking before you rely on an activity for the interactive total. Half of a standard registrant’s points must come this way.
Self-directed CPD is learning from sources other than GOC CPD providers. It does count, but with limits the guide spells out:
- You must still obtain at least 18 points from GOC CPD providers. Self-directed learning cannot make up the whole requirement.
- Points are capped by time. For self-directed CPD, an activity of over 30 minutes but under an hour earns a maximum of 0.5 points; one hour or more earns a maximum of 1 point. A registrant-led peer review earns 3 points.
- You must keep a log with evidence and write a short reflection statement for each activity.
GOC CPD providers come in two types, approved and provisional. Their events are already mapped to domains and points; self-directed learning is mapped by you.
We should be clear about where Nexis CPD sits. We are not a GOC CPD provider. Our courses are CPD-accredited general awareness courses, so for a GOC registrant they are self-directed CPD at best: relevant learning you can log with your certificate and a reflection, earning at most one point per activity of an hour or more, and never counting towards your 18 provider points. If you need points efficiently, GOC provider events will get you there faster.
How do peer review and the reflective exercise work?
These are two different requirements, and they are often confused.
Peer review
A peer review is a structured discussion among registrants, usually around cases, in which participants share how they would handle a scenario and challenge each other’s reasoning. You need at least one per cycle, you must complete a reflection statement afterwards, and each peer review is eligible for three CPD points. For specialty registrants, the peers must hold the same specialty.
Peer review is often the most useful CPD of the cycle precisely because it is uncomfortable. Hearing four colleagues handle the same referral decision four different ways tells you more about your own habits than a lecture on the guideline.
The personal development plan and reflective exercise
At the start of the cycle, you create a personal development plan in your MyCPD account: what you want to develop, and why. By the end of the cycle, you complete a reflective exercise with a peer, looking back at that plan and what you actually did about it.
The guide’s wording for contact lens opticians describes the reflective exercise as based on the personal development plan without repeating “with a peer” in the same place, although it says elsewhere that the reflective exercise must involve a discussion with a peer. If you are a contact lens optician and unsure, assume a peer discussion is expected; it costs little and removes the doubt.
The plan does not need to be long. What makes the reflective exercise worth doing is a plan written honestly at the start: “I am weaker on myopia management conversations with parents” is a plan you can reflect on; “keep up to date” is not.
How is GOC CPD recorded?
Everything is recorded in MyCPD, accessed through your MyGOC account. The GOC places the responsibility squarely on the registrant: it is your job to log details of all the CPD you undertake. Check that every provider-led activity you attended actually appears in your record, and enter self-directed activities yourself, with evidence and a reflection.
The GOC reviews a selection of registrants’ CPD records each cycle. The records that survive review well share three features: activities logged close to when they happened, reflections that say what changed in practice, and a visible link back to the personal development plan.
Joining the register mid-cycle
If you join part-way through a cycle, your requirement is pro-rated at one CPD point for each full month you are on the register. The GOC’s own example: someone joining on 1 September 2025 needs 28 points by 31 December 2027.
What happens if you do not meet GOC CPD requirements?
The guide is direct: if you have failed to meet your CPD requirements by the end of the cycle, you may be removed from the GOC register, which means you cannot practise. The 2021 Rules give the registrar the power to remove a registrant who has a shortfall.
There is an exceptions route. Registrants can apply for consideration to remain on the register under the GOC’s CPD exceptions policy, and the Registrar considers the application. That is intended for genuine circumstances such as illness or leave, not for a cycle that simply got away from you, and the policy itself is the document to read before relying on it.
Because removal ends your ability to practise, the risk is asymmetric. Being a few points over costs nothing. Being one domain point short at 11pm on 31 December can cost your registration.
Do optometrists need safeguarding training?
The GOC standards require awareness and compliance, not a specific course. Standard 11.1 of the Standards of Practice says you must be aware of and comply with your legal obligations in relation to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults. It does not name a training level, and we have not found any GOC rule that does.
Practical expectations go further:
- The College of Optometrists describes safeguarding training as good practice for all optometry professionals, and notes it is required for registering with your National Health Board or the National Performers List in England.
- College guidance says you should be familiar with local procedures for reporting safeguarding concerns.
- The Standards for Optical Businesses expect businesses to ensure staff are suitably trained, to monitor training needs, and to support registrants in meeting their CPD requirements.
One honest pointer: the College recommends that qualified optometrists use the free safeguarding training available from DOCET, which also earns CPD points. If your only goal is the safeguarding training your performers list or health board expects, start there.
Where awareness courses like ours are genuinely useful is for the whole practice team. Optical assistants, receptionists and retail staff are not GOC registrants, but they meet vulnerable adults and children every day, and they are often the first to notice that something is wrong. The business standards make their training the business’s responsibility. For background, see what is safeguarding adults.
Is GOC CPD changing?
Possibly, but not for the current cycle.
New Standards of Practice, Standards for Optical Students and Standards for Optical Businesses took effect on 1 January 2025. Separately, on 19 January 2026 the GOC launched a consultation on reforming the CPD scheme, which closed on 19 April 2026.
The proposals, as consulted on, were to take effect from the 2028 to 2030 cycle and included requiring fewer activities to reach the points total, removing the minimum of provider-led points, removing reflection statements for each self-directed activity, and ending the provider approval and audit arrangements. A longer-term proposal, dependent on changes to legislation, was to replace points with an annual declaration as part of registration renewal.
These are proposals. At the time of writing we have not found a published final decision, and the 2025 to 2027 cycle runs under the current rules regardless. Plan this cycle on the rules as they stand.
A practical plan for the 2025 to 2027 cycle
- Write the personal development plan now if you have not. Two or three honest development areas are enough.
- Aim for 12 points a year, double the GOC’s minimum expectation. It leaves slack for a bad year.
- Book provider-led interactive CPD first. It fills the interactive requirement and the provider requirement at the same time.
- Book one peer review early. Three points, a required element, and usually the most useful session of the cycle.
- Check your domain spread every six months. Leadership and accountability is the one most often empty.
- Use self-directed learning to fill gaps, logged with evidence and a reflection at the time.
- Complete the reflective exercise with a peer in the first half of 2027, not the last fortnight.
Other healthcare professions run quite different models. Dental professionals count verifiable hours, pharmacy professionals submit annual records, and nurses revalidate every three years; see our guides to CPD for dental nurses and CPD for pharmacists if you work alongside them.
Which courses suit optical practices?
For optical practice teams, and for registrants wanting self-directed learning in non-clinical areas:
- Safeguarding Adults Level 1: recognising and reporting concerns about vulnerable adults
- Infection Prevention and Control Awareness: hand hygiene, cleaning of contact equipment and trial frames (see what is infection prevention and control)
- Data Protection and GDPR Awareness: patient records, referrals and consent
Those three together cost £18 rather than £27, because any three courses trigger the pay-for-2-get-3 offer. Add them to the cart and the discount applies automatically. Practices seeing children often add Safeguarding Children Level 1, and those with an older patient base can add Dementia Awareness or Complaints Handling.
Said plainly: Nexis CPD is not a GOC CPD provider. Our courses do not carry GOC points, do not count towards the 18 provider points or the interactive requirement, and are not a substitute for clinical CPD. At most, a registrant can log one as self-directed CPD with a reflection.
Frequently asked questions
How many CPD points do optometrists need?
Optometrists and dispensing opticians need at least 36 CPD points in each three-year GOC cycle, including at least 18 interactive points, at least 18 points from GOC CPD providers, and at least one point in each of the four core domains. Optometrists with additional supply, supplementary or independent prescribing need 54 points, including 18 in the specialty domain.
When does the current GOC CPD cycle end?
The current GOC CPD cycle runs from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. The GOC expects registrants to obtain at least six points a year rather than leaving them to the final year.
What are the four GOC CPD domains?
The four core domains are professionalism; communication; clinical practice; and leadership and accountability. You need at least one CPD point in each domain during the cycle.
Does self-directed learning count towards GOC CPD?
Yes, but you must still obtain at least 18 points from GOC CPD providers. Self-directed activities earn a maximum of 0.5 points for over 30 minutes and under an hour, or 1 point for an hour or more, and each needs a log with evidence and a short reflection statement.
What happens if I do not complete my GOC CPD?
If you have not met your CPD requirements by the end of the cycle, you may be removed from the GOC register and be unable to practise. Registrants can apply to remain on the register under the GOC's CPD exceptions policy, which the Registrar considers.
Do optometrists need safeguarding training?
GOC Standard 11.1 requires registrants to be aware of and comply with their legal safeguarding obligations but does not name a training level. The College of Optometrists describes safeguarding training as good practice and notes it is required for National Health Board registration and the National Performers List in England, recommending the free DOCET training for qualified optometrists.
Is the GOC changing the CPD scheme?
The GOC consulted from January to April 2026 on reforms proposed to take effect from the 2028 to 2030 cycle, including fewer activities and removing the provider-led minimum, with a longer-term proposal to replace points with an annual declaration. These are proposals; the 2025 to 2027 cycle runs under the current rules.
CPD courses for optical practice teams
£9 per course. CPD accredited, 100% online, verifiable e-certificate. Pay for 2, get 3 — any 3 courses for £18.
This article is general information, not legal or regulatory advice. GOC CPD requirements are set by the General Optical Council and the 2021 CPD Rules, and the GOC has consulted on changes for future cycles; always check the current guide for registrants and your MyCPD account. Nexis CPD is not a GOC CPD provider, and our CPD-accredited awareness courses are not regulated qualifications and do not carry GOC CPD points.