SCHEDULE
Article 2
The General Optical Council (Continuing Professional Development) Rules 2021
The General Optical Council, in exercise of their powers under sections 11A, 11B(6) and 31A of the Opticians Act 1989 (“”) hereby make the following Rules:
PART 1
GENERAL
1. Citation and commencement
(1) These Rules may be cited as the General Optical Council (Continuing Professional Development) Rules 2021 and will come into force on 1st January 2022.
(2) The General Optical Council (Continuing Education and Training) Rules 20052are revoked with effect from 1st January 2022.
2. Interpretation
(1) In these Rules—
“” means—
(a) any person who is for the time being appointed under rule 3(a), or
(b) in a case falling within rule 3(b), the Council;
“” means a continuing professional development event which is approved under rule 9(1);
“” means a general CPD point or a specialist CPD point;
“” means any requirement which a registrant is required to satisfy under Part 4;
“” means the specialty described in columns 2 and 3 of the entry at line A of the Table in rule 10 of the General Optical Council (Registration) Rules 20053;
“continuing professional development” and “CPD” mean the scheme for the continuing professional development of registered optometrists and registered dispensing opticians which is administered as specified under rule 3;
“” means a learning event, lecture, seminar, curriculum or other programme or method of study that is relevant to the needs and professional standards of optometrists or dispensing opticians which is either an approved event provided by a listed provider or an event provided by a person other than a listed provider;
“” means competencies established by the Council as being those which a person needs to be able to demonstrate for the purposes of continuing professional development;
“” means a CPD point as specified as such under rule 9(2);
“” has the meaning given in rule 9(4);
“” means a person whose application under rule 5 for their name to be added to the list of event providers is granted under rule 8;
“” means competencies established by the Council as being those which a person needs to be able to demonstrate for the purposes of continuing professional development;
“” has the meaning given in rule 9(5);
“” means a document used by a registrant to plan their learning needs;
“”, in relation to an approved event, means a number allocated to that event under rule 9(1)(b);
“” means planned reflection, based on the content of a registrant’s personal development plan, which is documented;
“” means the register referred to in section 7 of the 1989 Act (registers of opticians) in the form specified in rule 21 of the Registration Rules;
“” means a registered optometrist or registered dispensing optician;
“” means the registrar of the Council referred to in section 1(3) of the 1989 Act (constitution and functions of the Council);
“” means the General Optical Council (Registration) Rules 20054;
“” means each consecutive period of three years, commencing with 1st January 2013;
“” means a situation where in any relevant period a registrant has failed to obtain the required CPD points required by rules 11 and 12 for that period; “” means a CPD point specified as such under rule 9(3);
“” means a specialty or level of proficiency particulars of which may, by virtue of rule 10 of the Registration Rules, be entered in a register against a registrant’s name;
“” means competencies established by the Council as being those which a person needs to be able to demonstrate for the purposes of continuing professional development in order to be permitted to practise that specialty; and
“” means a calendar year.
(2) In these Rules, references to the type of CPD point specified or obtained in relation to an approved event are references to whether the CPD points specified or obtained for that event are general CPD points or specialist CPD points.
(3) In these Rules any reference to a numbered section is a reference to the section of the 1989 Act.
PART 2
CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SCHEME
3. The scheme and the scheme administrators
The scheme for continuing professional development referred to in section 11A (requirement for continuing education and training) must be administered by—
(a) one or more persons who are appointed by the Council to carry out some or all of the functions of administering the scheme, or
(b) to the extent that no appointment is in force in respect of any one or more such functions, the Council.
4. Appointment of persons as administrators
(1) Any appointment of a person under rule 3(a) must be made on such terms (including terms as to the duration and termination of their appointment) as the Council consider appropriate.
(2) In addition to terminating the appointment of such a person in the circumstances specified in their terms of appointment, the Council may by notice terminate the appointment before it would otherwise expire if they are at any time satisfied that such a person is unable or unfit to carry out their functions.
PART 3
LISTING OF PROVIDERS AND APPROVAL OF EVENTS
5. Application to become a listed provider
(1) The Council must maintain a list of event providers.
(2) Any person who wishes to provide an approved event to optometrists or dispensing opticians must apply to the administrator for their name to be entered on the list of event providers for a period of twelve months.
(3) An application must be made in such form (including electronic) as is specified by the Council.
6. Fee payable for application to be a listed provider
A fee of £45 must be paid in respect of each application to become a listed provider.
7. Application by a listed provider for approval of an event
(1) Subject to paragraph (3), if a listed provider wishes to provide an approved event, they must apply to the administrator for the event to be approved.
(2) An application must be made in such form (including electronic) as is specified by the Council.
(3) The administrator may determine at any time that events run by a listed provider who has previously had an event, or events, approved under paragraph (1) will be permitted to provide approved events without any further applications for approval of an event being required by the listed provider.
8. Grant or refusal of application to become a listed provider
(1) Where an application under rule 5 has been submitted to the administrator, together with the appropriate fee, the administrator will grant or refuse the application and, if granted, must enter the applicant’s name to the list of event providers.
(2) The administrator must notify the applicant of their decision in respect of the application.
(3) A person’s entry on the list of event providers must expire at the end of the period of twelve months beginning with the date on which the entry is made.
9. Grant or refusal of an application for approval of an event
(1) Where an application under rule 7 for approval of an event has been submitted to the administrator, the administrator must grant or refuse the application and, where it is granted, the administrator must—
(a)
(a) specify—
(i) the number of CPD points that a registrant who undertakes the approved event will obtain,
(ii) whether those points are to be general CPD points under paragraph (2) or specialist CPD points under paragraph (3),
(iii) each of those competencies established by the Council to which the approved event relates,
(iv) whether it is an interactive event under paragraph (4),
(v) whether it is a peer review event under paragraph (5), and
(b)
(b) allocate a reference number to the approved event.
(2) Where the administrator considers that an approved event is relevant to optometrist competencies or dispensing optician competencies the type of points to be obtained by undertaking that event must be specified as general CPD points.
(3) Where the administrator considers that an approved event is relevant to specialty competencies the type of points to be obtained by undertaking that event must be specified as specialist CPD points.
(4) Where the administrator considers that an approved event is one which—
(a)
(a) requires physical attendance,
(b)
(b) is part of a supervised course of education and training, or
(c)
(c) is to be conducted by way of instantaneous electronic communication with one or more persons qualified as an optometrist or dispensing optician,
the administrator must specify that it is an interactive event.
(5) Where the administrator considers...
