About us
The General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) is the regulator for osteopaths in the United Kingdom. By law, osteopaths must be registered with the GOsC to practise in the UK.
It is our role to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of the public, and to protect the reputation of the osteopathic profession. We are responsible for making sure the public continue to have confidence in the profession of osteopathy, and we are responsible for the professional standards that osteopaths and osteopathic students must follow in order to practise safely.
Legally, we cannot promote osteopathy to the public or other healthcare professionals. We also cannot lobby the government on behalf of the osteopathic profession. Find out about more myths around the role of the GOsC and what we can and cannot do.
What we do
- We keep a Register of all those allowed to practise osteopathy in the UK.
- We work with the public, patients and osteopathic profession to decide on, maintain and develop high quality standards of osteopathic practice and conduct.
- We help patients with any concerns they raise about an osteopath and have the power to remove from the Register any osteopaths who do not meet the professional standards and who are unfit to practise.
- We check the quality of osteopathic education and decide on the standards of practice that osteopathic students must demonstrate before they graduate.
- We protect the osteopathic title from misuse by making sure that only those with the correct qualifications are able to call themselves an osteopath.
- We also make sure that osteopaths carry out activities to support their continuing professional development.
We're inviting osteopathic patients to join our Patient Involvement Forum and to take part in a range of activities such as focus groups, surveys and consultations so we can hear your views.
If you are interested and willing to use your unique experience to help make a difference to future osteopathic care, we would love to hear from you.
Annual Report
Our annual report provides an overview of our work over the last year. Read more
