GOC research reveals impacts of commercial pressures on optical professionals and launches thematic review

The General Optical Council (GOC) has published the findings from its 2025 Workforce and Perceptions Survey, which aims to learn more about registrants’ work experiences, including views on their job satisfaction and working conditions.

This year’s research indicates that registrants experiencing time or commercial pressures are more likely to report difficulties in providing patients with the sufficient level of care they need. The percentage of respondents who reported experiencing the following practices sometimes or frequently during the last 12 months, was:

48 per cent of optometrist respondents said they found the standard time allocated to conduct a sight test insufficient to provide safe patient care.
38 per cent said they felt pressure to see a high number of patients each day impacting their ability to provide safe patient care.
33 per cent said they felt under pressure to sell certain types of glasses or contact lenses that will earn more money for the business.
30 per cent said they have felt under pressure to meet commercial targets at the expense of patient care.
22 per cent said they have felt under pressure to sell a product or provide a service which they considered was not needed by the patient.

Overall job satisfaction levels are down again, with just 55 per cent of respondents feeling satisfied in their role over the past 12 months, compared to 62 per cent in 2023 and 58 per cent in 2024.

Levels of harassment, bullying, abuse and discrimination are still high, with 44 per cent of respondents reporting they experienced harassment, bullying or abuse at their work or place of study and 29 per cent experienced discrimination at their work or place of study in the last 12 months.

New questions on supervision found that 20 per cent of working optometrist respondents had worked as a supervisor for pre-registration trainee optometrists in the last 12 months. 62 per cent cited their motivation was wanting to help others join the professions. But supervisors also described pressures around time management and workload which created challenges for them.

The most common reasons for joining the optical professions were an interest in eye health/eye care (67%) and wanting to help people (55%).

Steve Brooker, GOC Director of Regulatory Strategy, said:

“This year’s research highlights the continuing challenges that registrants face in daily clinical practice due to features of their working environment and the troubling impact this has on their well-being and on their ability to provide safe patient care.

To understand some of the challenges in more detail, in this year’s survey, we introduced new questions to understand the potential impacts of time and commercial pressures at work. It’s concerning how many registrants reported these pressures occurring sometimes or frequently. These registrants were more likely to report finding it difficult to provide patients with the sufficient level of care they need, suggesting a link between these pressures and patient safety.

We are launching a thematic review on commercial practices and patient safety to better understand how we can support registrants and protect the public. We want to hear directly from registrants about their views and experiences, so will be running a series of conversations on LinkedIn on this topic.”

The survey took place between March and May 2025 and received a total of 3,798 responses, representing a 12% response rate.

View the full research report and infographic