What is in a consultation?

What consultations does the AOP respond to?

A small part of what the AOP does for members is to keep a look out for consultations about changes that could affect our members or the future of the profession. These consultations could be launched by government, the General Optical Council (GOC) or the NHS.

Sometimes the proposed changes are huge, such as the GOC’s Education Strategic Review, that took place between 2015 and 2020, or their new consultation on the future of the Opticians Act. The changes can be short-term, such as the GOC’s temporary changes to their procedures during COVID-19 lockdown, or longterm, such as the Government’s consultation on the future of healthcare regulation as a whole, or the latest set of NHS reforms.

While some of these issues may seem very remote from the day-to-day experience of our members in the testing room, they could have a huge impact on their future working lives, and those of the optometrists of the future.