About this course
Safe supervision means patient protection, professional development, and compliance with the law.
[podcast mini /media/goc-standard-9-intro.mp3]
A busy clinic, phones ringing, patients waiting, staff juggling multiple tasks. In that environment, delegation isn’t just convenient—it’s essential. But here’s the question: how do you know which tasks can be safely delegated, and which ones legally demand a registrant’s direct supervision? That’s where GOC Standard 9 becomes more than just regulation—it’s the safety net that protects your patients, your colleagues, and your professional standing.
Supervision isn’t paperwork, and it’s not a tick-box exercise. It’s about clarity. It’s about knowing exactly who is responsible, when, and why. With clear documentation, transparent accountability, and consistent processes, your practice becomes safer, calmer, and audit-ready. More importantly, patients leave knowing they’ve been cared for within the highest standards of safety and trust.
This course gives you practical tools, checklists, and scenarios that turn theory into action. By the end, you’ll not only understand the law—you’ll embody it in your daily practice. Strong, lawful supervision builds confidence across your whole team. And that confidence translates directly into safer patient care.
Effective supervision is about more than oversight - it is about responsibility. This course explains how to supervise safely and lawfully, delegate appropriately, and support colleagues while protecting patients. You will gain the confidence to meet GOC Standard 9 in everyday practice.
This course is relevant to the whole optical team, including
- Registered optical professionals wanting reliable CPD mapped to GOC Standards
- Locums, jobseekers, and overseas practitioners needing to demonstrate current knowledge
- Colleagues addressing professional challenges who require structured CPD for reflection and remediation
- Managers and teams who want consistent, defensible training
CPD Time: 60 minutes (1 CE Credit / 1 Non-interactive CPD Point)
Assessment: 10 MCQs. Pass mark 80%. more…
On passing the assessment you will immediately receive a CPD Certificate.
Customer feedback on this course
- Clear, practical and directly applicable to our rota and recording systems.
- Excellent explanation of direct, indirect and remote supervision with useful examples.
- Helped our team formalise delegation records and reduce escalation errors.
- Valuable scenarios on paediatric dispensing and locum gaps — very realistic.
- Concise templates and checklists we adapted for immediate use in practice.
Aim:
The aim of this course is to ensure registrants and practice teams understand and can apply GOC Standard 9 so supervision and delegation are lawful, safe, and auditable.
Course objectives:
- Provide clear teaching on the legal and professional framework for supervision and delegation in UK optical practice, including Opticians Act requirements.
- Deliver practical tools, checklists, and scenarios to support safe delegation, accurate documentation of supervision, and effective escalation when registrants are absent.
Anticipated learning outcomes:
On course completion you will be able to:
- Explain the requirements of GOC Standard 9 and differentiate direct, indirect, and remote supervision (Standard 9).
- Apply safe delegation principles (Standard 9) by checking competence, recognising restricted tasks, and escalating appropriately in routine and urgent situations.
- Document supervision events clearly (Standard 9), including supervisor identity, mode, and timing, to create an auditable record of safe practice.
GOC Framework Mapping:
Standard 9: Safe and Lawful Supervision
Domain: Clinical Practice
Learning content:
Introduction: Why Supervision Matters | Legal and Professional Framework | Scenario Page 1: Everyday Delegation | Models of Supervision | Scenario Page 2: Supervision in Absentia | Delegation and Accountability | Scenario Page 3: Patient Transparency | Supporting Staff Development | Emergency Situations When No Clinician Is Present | Scenario Page 4: Emergency Response Without Clinician | Documenting Supervision | Reflection and Continuous Improvement | MCQ | Reading List
View full course description
GOC Standard 9: Safe and Lawful Supervision in Optical Practice
Course Description
Overview
This practical course helps optical teams translate GOC Standard 9 and the Opticians Act into everyday, auditable supervision and delegation. It focuses on lawful boundaries, documentation, escalation and emergency actions to protect patients and make accountability clear.
Introduction: Why Supervision Matters
Covers the role of supervision in patient safety, registrant accountability, transparency with patients, common failure modes and how supervision supports staff development.
Legal and Professional Framework
Explains GOC Standard 9, relevant Opticians Act restrictions, definitions of direct, indirect and remote supervision, restricted activities and employer duties.
Scenario Page 1: Everyday Delegation
Practical scenarios on dispensing to children, routine adult adjustments and lawful delegation boundaries, with clear documentation requirements and supervisor identification.
Models of Supervision
Defines direct, indirect and remote supervision with examples, the supervision matrix, escalation triggers and governance implications for rotas and clinical cover.
Scenario Page 2: Supervision in Absentia
Addresses locum gaps, paediatric dispensing challenges, phone advice for contact lens issues and safe limits of remote advice, including recording and follow-up plans.
Delegation and Accountability
Sets out principles for safe delegation, competence assessment and sign-off, escalation rules and communicating boundaries to patients and staff.
Scenario Page 3: Patient Transparency
Covers managing patient misunderstandings about roles, safe redirection, handling refusals to wait for a registrant and documenting offered options.
Supporting Staff Development
Describes structured training pathways, observation-to-independent practice models, deliberate practice with feedback and maintaining competence.
Emergency Situations When No Clinician Is Present
Identifies red-flag ocular and systemic signs, first-aid actions within competence (for example irrigation), escalation to emergency services and registrant notification, plus documentation and post-event review.
Scenario Page 4: Emergency Response Without Clinician
Model responses for chemical eye injury, telephone triage for sudden vision loss, structured escalation, safety-netting and recording verbatim accounts and actions.
Documenting Supervision
What to record for every supervision event, how to record remote advice (mode, timestamps), practical notation examples and creating an auditable trail.
Reflection and Continuous Improvement
Auditing supervision records, learning from incidents and near-misses, resilience planning for rota gaps and embedding improvements into governance.
Course Completion
You will complete a feedback survey, pass a multiple-choice assessment and receive a CPD certificate. Apply the templates and checklists to your local SOPs and record supervision events in clinical notes.
You can copy and adapt this example PDP entry for your own needs and circumstances.
| PDP Learning or Maintenance need |
| Understanding and applying GOC Standard 9 for supervision and delegation. |
| How does this relate to my field of practice? |
| Ensures lawful delegation, safe patient care and correct escalation when registrants are absent. |
| Which development outcome(s) does it link to? |
| GOC Standard 9 – supervision and delegation |
| What benefit will this have to my work? |
| Reduces legal risk, improves patient safety and clarifies team roles and escalation pathways. |
| How will I meet this learning or maintenance need? |
| Complete this course, update local SOPs and document supervision in clinical records. |
| When will I complete the activity? |