Reading List

This Reading List supports learning from the course and focuses on practical, UK-relevant guidance for maintaining professional boundaries in optical practice.

Core standards and ethics

• GOC Standard 15: Maintain appropriate boundaries with others - Core requirement on sexual, emotional, financial and social boundaries in all settings.
• GOC Standard 14: Maintain confidentiality and respect your patients' privacy - Expectations for privacy, secure records and appropriate disclosure.
• GOC Standards of Practice for Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians - The full set of professional standards referenced throughout this course.

Digital and data protection

• College of Optometrists: Social media and online behaviour - Practical rules for keeping professional distance online and handling friend requests.
• ICO: Encryption scenarios - When and how to encrypt email, attachments and images to protect patient data.
• ICO reprimand on WhatsApp data sharing - A cautionary case study on using personal messaging apps for clinical information (August 2023).
• NHS England: Remote consulting - Guidance on safe remote care, including chaperoning and avoiding intimate exams over video (updated March 2025).

Safeguarding and consent

• NICE NG189 Safeguarding adults in care homes - Indicators, responses and governance for adult safeguarding relevant to domiciliary and care-home visits (February 2021).
• NICE NG76 Child abuse and neglect - Recognising and responding to concerns for children and young people (October 2017).
• NICE NG108 Decision-making and mental capacity - Supporting decisions, assessing capacity and acting in best interests (October 2018).
• The Caldicott Principles - Eight principles that underpin confidential use and sharing of patient information (December 2020).

Domiciliary and lone working

• College of Optometrists: The domiciliary eye examination - Practical guidance on consent, presence of carers, equipment and privacy in home settings.
• HSE: Lone working - Employer and worker duties to manage risks, including violence, when working alone (March 2025).

Records and documentation

• Records Management Code of Practice - NHS guidance on record creation, retention and disposal to evidence safe boundary decisions (updated December 2023).

Financial and commercial boundaries

• College of Optometrists: Integrity and conflicts of interest - How to handle gifts, inducements and referrals without compromising clinical judgement.
• NHS England: Managing conflicts of interest in the NHS - Principles, declarations and management actions for NHS-funded services (September 2024).

Escalation and speaking up

• GOC Speaking up: guidance for registrants - When and how to raise concerns about boundary breaches and safety, including protected disclosures (2025).