To:

• Neil Gray MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care (Scottish Government)
• The Directorate for Primary Care, Dentistry and Optometry Division (Scottish Government)
• Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSD Scotland) (formerly NES) Optometry Directorate
• The Executive Board of Optometry Scotland

Summary

Scotland's General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) recently celebrated its 20th anniversary in September 2026.

While Scottish General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) practice fees have received six consecutive years of uplifts to meet inflationary pressure (up to 6% annually), individual practitioner CPD grants have been frozen at 2022 levels. Simultaneously, new mandatory training prerequisites have been added. 

We request a recalculation of the CPD grant to reflect the GOS fee increases seen. 

Why This Matters

As an optometrist practicing within the NHS in Scotland, I provide essential primary eye care services, ensuring vision needs are met, identifying systemic health conditions, and managing acute eye care to reduce the clinical burden on secondary care services and primary care services like the GP and Pharmacy.

Data published by the Scottish Government demonstrates that consistently updated training for optometrists contributes directly to improved patient outcomes with more local care. Furthermore, clinical evidence highlighted in the BMJ confirms that primary care optometry innovation mitigates pressure across the wider NHS by diagnosing and managing vision conditions earlier in the community.

However, individual practitioners face a growing disparity in how professional development is supported. While the funding infrastructure for GOS practice fees has been steadily adjusted to economic pressures, the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) grant has remained static. Wage stagnation and the 'Cost of Living' is further compounding this inequality, decoupling individual practitioner support from broader sector inflationary adjustments systematically leaving optometrists behind. 

The Disparity Between Practice Fees and Individual Grants

The CPD grant (formerly the CET grant) is a critical component designed to reimburse individual practitioners for the time and resources required to maintain professional statutory registration with the General Optical Council (GOC).

Since 2022, the Scottish Government has approved consecutive, compounding percentage increases for practice-level GOS eye examinations to reflect rising operational costs. However, individual practitioner CPD support has been held completely flat over the same period:

• 2021–2022: GOS fees increased by 3.0%  (Standard CPD2021: £617 | IP: £924)
• 2022–2023: GOS fees increased by 4.5% (Standard CPD 2022: £654 | IP: £979) 
• 2023–2024: GOS fees increased by 6.0% (Standard CPD 2023: £654 | IP: £979) FROZEN
• 2024–2025: GOS fees increased by 6.0% (Standard CPD 2024: £654 | IP: £979) FROZEN
• 2025–2026: GOS fees increased by 4.0% (Standard CPD 2025: £654 | IP: £979) FROZEN
• 2026–2027: GOS fees increased by 3.75% 

 

Structural Changes to the "Notional Hours" Calculation

Historically, the value of the grant has been evaluated based on a "notional hours" formula (the estimated time a practitioner requires to fulfill standard educational obligations) and GOS fees. 
Recently, Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSD Scotland formally NES) introduced a mandatory requirement linking the release of the CPD grant to the completion of specific Scottish GOS training modules via the Turas platform. While these modules provide valuable national clinical education, they represent a change in requirement by individual clinicians to secure the allowance. 

Proportional Projection of Grant Values

If individual practitioner CPD grants had been linked to the exact same compounding percentage updates applied to GOS practice fees over the last five financial years, current support values would be significantly different:
The Standard CPD Grant would be £781.69 (instead of £654).
The Independent Prescriber (IP) Grant would be £1,170.63 (instead of £979).

Formal Requests

To ensure the long-term sustainability of the optometric workforce in Scotland, we request that the Scottish Government, PSD, and Optometry Scotland look to:

• Index the CPD grant by applying equivalent, retrospective inflationary updates to individual practitioner grants, aligning them with the compounding growth seen in GOS practice fees.
• Ensure primary care funding directly values individual clinical professionals to sustain Scotland’s community eye care framework.

Please sign this petition to support a realignment of the Scottish optometry CPD grant to support our optometrists for the next 20 years and beyond. 

 

 

 

Sources

College of Optometrists
 Our manifesto for Scotland - College of Optometrists
The manifesto states that: * Scotland is the only UK nation where everyone can access NHS-funded eye care * 183,000 people in Scot...

The College of Optometrists launches its Manifesto for Scotland
9 Mar 2026 — “We call on the next Scottish government to build on Scotland's eye care success by continuing to invest in optometry services in ...
 

The Scottish Government
 NHS (General Ophthalmic Services) (Scotland) Amendment ...
15 Dec 2025 — Purpose/ aim of action and desired effect The primary purpose of GOS-SS is to expand the clinical role of IP optometrists and OMP ...

 College of Optometrists
 Scotland update: building on success in community eye care
16 Sept 2026 — ... prevent avoidable sight loss and improve access to care. The manifesto sets out four priorities: expanding community eye care ...
  
National Institutes of Health (NIH) | (.gov)
 Digital ophthalmology in Scotland: benefits to patient care ... - PMC
In the last decade, the advent of electronic image exchange via a centralized referral unit in Scotland has revolutionized screeni...

 

IMAGE accreditation https://unsplash.com/photos/a-close-up-of-a-pair-of-medical-equipment--OpWKFHA_yQ?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

Removed argument for change in number of hours required to meet requirement as this naturally counts towards CPD requirements not in addition as was originally proposed in the petition.