With the publication of the General Optical Council’s 2026 Registrant Workforce and Perceptions Survey, we look back at a research programme delivered by Enventure Research since 2016.
Understanding what is happening within a profession is essential for any effective regulator. What pressures are professionals facing? How is the workforce changing? Where are emerging risks? These are questions Enventure Research has been helping the General Optical Council (GOC), the UK regulator for optometrists and dispensing opticians, answer through its Registrant Workforce and Perceptions Survey.
Enventure first delivered the GOC’s Registrant Survey in 2016. When the survey was next commissioned in 2021, the GOC returned to Enventure, and we have delivered every annual wave since. Across those seven waves, almost 30,000 survey responses have been gathered from optometrists, dispensing opticians, and students across the UK, creating a substantial body of evidence about the profession and how it is changing over time.
Maintaining continuity while responding to change
One of the strengths of longitudinal research is being able to distinguish short-term fluctuations from genuine changes over time. Working collaboratively with the GOC, we retain core questions wherever appropriate so results can be benchmarked against previous years, while adapting the questionnaire to explore new and emerging issues.
Recent surveys have covered workforce capacity, job satisfaction, career intentions, workload, speaking up, bullying, harassment and discrimination, Continuing Professional Development, commercial pressures, and patient care. In 2026, new questions explored artificial intelligence in optical care, and vision and safe driving.
Maintaining this balance is important, as the survey needs to protect comparability over time while continuing to provide relevant evidence for current and future decisions.
Research that leads to action
The value of a research programme like this lies in what the evidence enables the GOC and the wider sector to do. Over successive waves, the research has helped identify important issues affecting professionals and patient care.
Findings from the 2023 survey highlighted experiences of bullying, harassment, abuse, and discrimination in the workplace. The GOC subsequently convened sector leaders, resulting in organisations across the optical sector committing to a joint zero-tolerance approach.
The 2024 research provided further evidence about the relationship between negative workplace experiences and the ability to deliver safe patient care, feeding into wider work to improve workplace cultures and strengthen relevant standards.
In 2025, new questions explored time and commercial pressures in greater depth. The findings contributed to the GOC launching a thematic review into commercial practices and patient safety.
The 2026 research continues that role. New findings provide evidence about attitudes towards AI in eye care, while evidence on vision and driving has been submitted by the GOC to the Department for Transport and DVLA for consideration.
Together, these examples demonstrate how tracking research can identify emerging issues, provide evidence for action, and show how experiences are changing over time.
Independent, robust, and designed around the client
Enventure Research manages the programme from questionnaire development through to fieldwork, analysis, and reporting. For the 2026 wave, more than 32,000 registrants were invited to participate. The survey was independently hosted and managed by Enventure Research, helping to protect respondent confidentiality, with personalised invitations and reminders used to encourage participation.
Our analysis goes beyond headline percentages, exploring differences between groups within the profession and comparisons with previous waves. This helps the GOC understand where experiences differ, what has changed, and where findings warrant closer attention.
Outputs are designed for different audiences and purposes, ranging from comprehensive reports, detailed data tables, and tracking dashboards, to concise infographics and profiles. The GOC publishes these outputs openly, allowing the evidence to support its own work and the wider optical sector.
A research partnership built on understanding
Our long-term involvement in the survey has given us a detailed understanding of the GOC, the optical sector, and the wider research context. We approach each new wave with an understanding of previous findings, established trends, and the practical considerations involved in surveying a large professional population.
We work closely with the GOC to refine the questionnaire, identify useful areas for analysis, maintain comparability over time, and translate a large and complex dataset into clear, relevant findings.
The GOC’s feedback on working with Enventure Research reflects the value of this long-term relationship:
“I have worked with Enventure Research for several years on annual surveys and project-specific research. They consistently deliver high-quality work, provide excellent data analysis, are responsive and can adapt flexibly to changing requirements. Their reports have supported us in effective stakeholder engagement, policy development and service improvement. They are dependable and easy to work with, and bring an excellent knowledge of the healthcare and regulatory environment.”
The 2026 findings
The latest survey was undertaken between March and April 2026 and received 3,451 responses. Among the new findings, 45% of respondents believed AI would improve the quality of eye care, although 60% rated their current knowledge and understanding of AI in optical care as poor. The research also continued to identify challenges around workload, workplace culture, and commercial pressures, while job satisfaction showed a modest improvement from the previous year.
The full 2026 Registrant Workforce and Perceptions Survey, including the research report, data tables, profiles, and national infographics, is available on the General Optical Council website.
Using research to support better decisions
Longitudinal research is particularly valuable for regulators, professional bodies, and membership organisations because it builds a stronger evidence base over time. It helps organisations understand how views and experiences are changing, track emerging issues, and identify where challenges persist.
Enventure Research works with organisations to design and deliver research programmes that turn the experiences of their members, registrants, stakeholders, and service users into reliable evidence for decision-making.
If you are considering a member, registrant, workforce, or stakeholder survey - whether as a one-off study or an ongoing tracking programme - talk to us about how we can help.