Regular research to provide insight into General Optical Council registrants’ perceptions and experiences of clinical practice
Registrant surveys delivered for the GOC to date
Optical professionals invited to take part in the survey
%
Response rate achieved in 2020
Challenge
The General Optical Council (GOC) is the regulator for the optical professions in the UK, with the overarching statutory purpose to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public. The GOC currently registers nearly 30,000 optometrists, dispensing opticians and student optical professionals.
To help track registrants’ views and perceptions of the GOC, and their experiences of working in clinical practice, a regular survey of registrants is carried out. Enventure Research delivered the two most recent surveys in 2016 and 2021, and was engaged to conduct the research again in 2022.
Approach
A questionnaire was designed by the GOC and Enventure Research, including a mix of previously used questions to allow for benchmarking and new questions to cover additional topics of interest. The survey was securely hosted online and personalised invitations to take part were emailed to all GOC registrants with a valid email address, with reminders sent to boost the response rate.
An open-access link to the survey was also promoted by the GOC and stakeholder organisations via email newsletters and social media.
Outcome
The survey was live for five weeks and 4,102 responses were received. This represented a positive response rate of 14% and provided a robust sample size for confident statistical analysis.
Analysis and reporting on the results was undertaken by Enventure Research, including relevant subgroup analysis and comparisons to previous years’ surveys to track changes over time. An easily digestible infographic report was also provided to the GOC alongside the detailed written report and data tables. The findings provided the GOC with useful insight into the views and perceptions of the optical workforce, and will allow it to better support its registrants.
The GOC registrant survey will be undertaken again in 2023 by Enventure Research.
“I have had a very positive experience of working with Enventure Research on a number of different projects over the years. This has ranged from annual tracking research to one off research projects. They are very competent at managing projects, understanding your needs, being flexible where necessary, and meeting project deadlines. They have demonstrated a very good knowledge of the optical sector and wider healthcare sector which has helped hugely when delivering projects. Their analysis is comprehensive and they produce high quality reports. As a small team the work is managed at a senior level and I have found Matt and his team very personable and easy to work with.“
Insightful research. Expertly delivered.
