25 February 2025

Updated Clinical governance guidance supports quality improvement and excellence in optometry

The updated guidance will support optometry professionals in maintaining and enhancing standards of patient care.

The College of Optometrists has launched its updated Clinical governance in optometric practice guidance to provide members with a robust framework that aligns with the healthcare landscape and primary care optometry workplace practices of today - and into the future. The guidance will support optometry professionals in maintaining and enhancing standards of patient care.  

This updated guidance builds upon the College’s previous ‘Clinical governance guidance’, published in 2015, to integrate advances in clinical practices, regulatory expectations, and patient safety strategies.  

Four key themes

The guidance is centred around four key themes: 

  • safety culture and systems
  • insight
  • involvement
  • improvement

Shift in focus

This approach underscores a shift from traditional compliance-focused guidance to a system that actively promotes innovation, learning, and collaboration.  

The updated guide provides user-friendly clinical governance checklists for individual optometrists, contractors and practice leaders. It also signposts members to practical tools for quality improvement, from clinical audit cycles to advanced incident reporting systems in the College’s Guidance for Professional Practice and CPD courses.  

"Clinical governance is essential for leadership, quality improvement, and a strong patient safety culture in optometry. I urge all optometrists to make it a priority in their Personal Development Plan this cycle. To support this, we’ve created a simple checklist to help refresh and strengthen your governance approach. Our newly updated Clinical Governance Guideline provides practical steps to keep optometry at the forefront of patient-centred, high-quality primary care. Now is the time to take action and embed these principles into everyday practice."

Daniel Hardiman-McCartney MBE FCOptom, Lead Clinical Adviser at The College of Optometrists

Providing support

The new framework supports each UK nation’s Quality in Optometry toolkit and employers’ internal clinical governance standard operating procedures, providing a high-level overview of current culture and good practice. 

Find out more

Related further reading

Independent MP – and independent optometrist – Shockat Adam talks about his first six months in Parliament and how he is bringing eye health care to the national stage.

Jane Veys MCOptom on why planning is the cornerstone of success