In Focus: Providing specialised services

A new NHS England (NHSE) programme of eye care for children with special needs has begun to be rolled out across England. Based on and led by NHSE’s collaboration with special needs eye care charity, SeeAbility, the programme will see specially trained optometrists and dispensing opticians set up sight testing, dispensing and frame repair services within special schools to redress inequalities and issues of access.

Research from SeeAbility has shown that half of the pupils across England’s special schools had problems with their eyes or vision, while only 44% had any history of sight tests or eye care at all.

‘Fundamentally, what the service is about is every child having access to a sight test and dispensing on school premises,’ said Richard Everitt, the senior programme lead for optical services commissioning at NHSE. ‘Other services may provide a voucher for a high street opticians, but that defeats the purpose of providing this service within the school because its major benefit is preventing parents or carers from having to find the time to take their child into a practice that isn’t optimised for their child, as this can be problematic for them.’