Response to the General Optical Council consultation on draft supplementary guidance on the duty of candour

GOC consultation on candour

We have previously provided advice to Government on how a professional duty of candour could operate and worked with the General Optical Council (GOC) and the other statutory regulators to develop a more consistent approach to candour in the context of professional regulation.

General comments on guidance

We welcome the opportunity to comment on the GOC draft supplementary guidance on the professional duty of candour. 

Following on from the joint statement by the regulators on the duty of candour in October 2014, we are very supportive of the work being undertaken to embed this requirement into the standards of behaviour for health and care professionals. Alongside the inclusion of a new standard in the GOC Standards, this supplementary guidance is a helpful way of explaining why candour is so important and outlining how optical professionals can comply with this duty.

Generally the guidance is clearly and logically laid out and includes some helpful information. We suggest that the document may benefit from a little more background in relation to the role of the GOC and the steps taken to add the new standard on candour into the GOC Standards. It may also be helpful to reference the statutory duty of candour for organisations earlier in the guidance document to help registrants better understand the context of their own professional duty of candour and the difference between the statutory and professional duty.

The guidance could also benefit from some case studies of situations where the duty of candour might apply. This would help registrants gain a clear picture of the circumstances in which this guidance might be relevant and how they should deal with the situation.