“Sight will be saved” SeeAbility welcomes rollout of free sight tests in special schools

NEWS from the government that NHS sight tests will be on offer to all pupils in their special schools from 2024/2025 has been welcomed by learning disability, autism and sight loss charity

SeeAbility as ‘life changing and sight saving’.

SeeAbility’s research concluded that children with learning disabilities are 28 times more likely to have a sight problem than other children, meaning half of the special school population will have a problem with their eyesight.

The NHS England Special Schools Eye Care service was set up in 2021 based on a SeeAbility recommended model of care and research evidence of high levels of unmet need from previous special school eye care services. It provides special schools with a visiting ‘one stop shop’ of sight testing and glasses dispensing as well as a user-friendly report for parents and teachers.

For many children with learning disabilities the service offers a first chance to build familiarity with NHS eye care and have sight issues treated, as parents report their children struggle to cope with appointments in the community or hospital, and to adjust to wearing glasses.

SeeAbility currently provides this eye care support in over two dozen special schools in London for 3,000 children, and champions better eye care for all adults and children with learning disabilities and autistic people.

Having introduced the NHS service to over 80 special schools up to 2022, the government has now confirmed it will be rolled out to a further 165,000 children in all special schools from 2024/25.

Minister Neil O’Brien said: “I am pleased we will be able to support sight testing for all pupils in special schools, an environment where they feel more comfortable.

“We have worked closely with NHS England, stakeholders and charities to extend this important service and thousands of pupils will benefit as a result.

“It’s vital for all children to have access to NHS sight tests and I’m grateful to all those who helped make this possible.

“Backed by a more than £10 million investment, the extension is expected to help up to an estimated 165,000 more children and will begin from 2024/25."

SeeAbility’s CEO Lisa Hopkins said: “The announcement today means thousands of children who would have no other way of getting sight tests and glasses will now get a service in their school, and many thousands more will not have to attend hospital eye clinic appointments. It is no exaggeration to say sight will be saved and lives will be transformed.

“Thank you to everyone who has held firm for this model of care during a period of uncertainty. Today is such a significant and wonderful step forward in improving eye care for people with learning disabilities.

“We look forward to working with the government, NHS and all who have made this work possible over many years to make this newly planned rollout successful. We’ll also continue the work to improve eye care for all people with learning disabilities!”

Parent Alyson Farrell said: "My daughter Ellie benefitted from the NHS service, but she moved to a school where it hadn’t rolled out to and had to go back to hospital instead for sight tests and glasses. Hospital visits make her so anxious and are a real challenge.

“It means everything to us and I’m sure to thousands more parents to definitively know the scheme will roll out to all special schools at last.”

Perseid School in Merton is one of the schools where SeeAbility provides eye tests. Head teacher Tina Harvey said: “The difference it has made to our children is absolutely profound. Especially for the children who had previously never had an eye test but were found to need glasses.”

GETTINGup and down stairs is often one of the greatest challenges facing people suffering from age related disabilities. However, despite being a simple and effective method of overcoming this problem, the stairlift and through floor lift still retains a somewhat unjustified stigma and is still often the subject of much corny and clichéd humour.

The stairlift, for example, has been around for over 45 years. Naturally, over time the stairlift has changed in appearance but essentially remains simple in its function. Each year in the UK, it is estimated some 60,000 new stairlifts are installed and without doubt, the stairlift has brought freedom and relief to many thousands of elderly and disabled people over the years. However, it is still an unfortunate fact that many elderly and infirm people prolong the decision to purchase stairlifts for as long as possible. There are many reasons for this, but most often it is a misguided notion that having a stairlift is an acceptance of no longer being independent, of old age or waiting for God? Sadly the, often, fierce resistance to acknowledging the benefits of a stairlift can have a detrimental effect upon a person and their remaining quality of life.

People should not be afraid to admit that, when older, it takes more energy to perform every day routine tasks, such as climbing the stairs for example. It is quite understandable for people born in the 1920s & 30’s, brought up before the explosion of laboursaving devices, to have a get-on and make-do attitude. Senior citizens should be proud of their past ability to endure austerity, but equally should also be unafraid to embrace modern technology for what it can now offer.

Stairlifts and through floor lifts should not be viewed as disability aids to ease one’s final days, but rather as energy saving to enjoy more in life.

Let’s not forget there is an abundance of energy saving devices that surround us today. People use dishwashers and washing machines, for example, not because they can’t clean their clothes or dishes by hand, but because it’s easier and more pleasurable to let a machine do it. In shopping malls people use the escalators and lifts rather than the stairs. Not because they can’t use the stairs but because the escalator and lift is easier and less tiring, leaving more time for the shopping pleasures. We would never equate the installation of a dishwasher or the use of an escalator as having one foot in the grave! Nor should we equate a domestic stairlift or through floor lift as such.

Despite the intense resistance in accepting stairlifts or through floor lifts, almost every person who eventually gets one wishes they had done so earlier. There are many concerns from healthcare professionals, among others, that the resistance to a stairlift installation can have a detrimental effect upon an individual’s health, not to mention the increased costs to Local Authorities and the National Health Service. Excessive delays can intensify an already stressful situation and, in some cases, long delays may either exacerbate medical conditions or increase the need for residential or respite care.

Indeed, many in the stairlift industry have long felt that it has a role to play in helping to overcome this largely unwarranted stigma and over the years have been looking to address this. In part, by creating functional, yet stylish products with a promotional emphasis on enhancing lifestyle rather than merely overcoming disabilities.

Stairlift manufacturers such as Stannah Stairlifts and through floor lift manufacturers such as Terry Lifts now make a wide range of lifts to suit almost any home and staircase type; be it straight, around corners of over multiple landings. Stairlifts now come with a number of additional features, such as remote controls and powered swivel seats, and there are now even models that can be used outside. Through floor lifts are very good for people who use wheelchairs as it means they don’t need to transfer from the wheelchair to use a stairlift.

Many physicians argue that exercise is beneficial for the elderly and can help prevent the onset of some medical conditions. Without question, some exercise is better than none. However, stairs are steep and can be considerably exerting if climbed frequently, not to mention the risks of falling if unsteady, dizzy or tired. Perhaps, given the choice, it would be preferable to use a stairlift for some of the stair journeys and exert energy doing a more pleasurable, mentally stimulating and sociable exercise, such as walking in the park perhaps?

Then there is the issue of bed blocking. The healthcare industry has been aware of this for many years. Indeed, the BHTA (British Healthcare Trades Association) commissioned a report from the LSE (London School of Economics) into the cost benefits of investing in adaptive technologies. The report concluded that if investment in homecare aids and adaptations was at the heart of its adult social care reforms it could yield a potential annual saving of £1,101 per person per year. Dr Mark Spencer, Chairman of the NHS Alliance, highlighted the correlation between effective primary care (social and community care) and secondary care (hospitals) as part of the solution to an overstretched health service. The NHS Alliance also highlighted the huge cost savings (£2.5 billion) if patients could be discharged from hospital more quickly into a social-care environment. This is very true; bed blocking is a huge problem for the NHS.

Indeed, one of the biggest causes of bed blocking is when elderly and disabled people fall and suffer serious injury. Once they have completed their treatment they can be discharged. However, in most cases the discharge can’t take place until the person’s home has been adapted. Adaptions can be anything from a simple grab rail to a stairlift or through floor lift. Home adaptations are on the whole provided by the local council social services rather than the NHS. Given bed blocking costs the NHS a lot of money and can delay other patient’s treatment while waiting for beds, once an identification of need is made and a specification prescribed, speed of delivery is vital for everyone concerned and as such needs to play a significant part of social service procurement and tendering.

Stairlifts and through floor lifts can be supplied either direct from the manufacturers or via specialist, independent suppliers. Financial support for disability access products, such as stairlifts, may also be available through various local authority grant schemes.

ROYALNational Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is celebrating accumulating 40,000 audio books in its Talking Books library after generous donations have flooded in from publishers in recent years.

It means people with sight loss have an unrivalled choice of books they can listen to in audio formats including the very latest fiction and non-fiction titles like Empire by Conn Iggulden, In a Thousand Different Ways by Cecilia Ahern and Cross Down, the latest James Patterson blockbuster, which have been in the library from June 8.

The RNIB Studios also records books requested by customers which directly have no audio versions, allowing accessibility to works that were previously only available in print.

The milestone has been reached after top UK publishers including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Bloomsbury and Faber have donated their audio catalogues to RNIB for free.

Award-winning actor and narrator Jeff Harding, who has narrated the entire Jack Reacher series of novels by Lee Child and top titles including the Bourne Identity and the Da Vinci Code, has recorded numerous titles for RNIB and is backing RNIB’s library at this crucial milestone. He said: “When I started losing my hair I wasn’t being employed so much as an actor! But it’s so much fun narrating in the studio to get to play all the characters and to be my own director. Working with one of the engineers at RNIB’s Camden studio who was blind, taught me to appreciate sight loss. I used to have a great laugh with him and we talked a lot.

“The fact that RNIB can provide audio at a professional standard is wonderful and appreciated. And people with sight loss are now in control of their own reading and can request the titles they want to hear.

“There’s nothing like a good book and audio puts people with sight loss on their same parr as their sighted friends. It’s our duty as narrators to try to bring the words off the page.”

Best-selling romantic comedy author Trisha Ashley who has Myopic Macular Degeneration and whose books are available in RNIB’s library, said: “I have found the RNIB talking books library a great resource. I'm very proud my publisher Transworld, which is part of Penguin Random House, is making all their audible books accessible to the RNIB free.”

RNIB’s Senior Reading Services Manager, James Bartlett, said: “In 2015 we had a Talking Book collection of 23,000 titles; today in 2023, we have seen an incredible growth in our catalogue and can now offer an amazing 40,000 Talking Book titles for readers to enjoy. We are delighted to be able to offer so much choice and so many of the very latest, must-read titles to our readers. The generosity of the publishers has made a huge positive impact – thank you.”

RNIB produced its first audio book – or ‘Talking Book’ – in 1935. Since then, the charity has provided Talking Books in various formats to blind and partially sighted people across the UK for free, recording them in its own studios in Camden, London. In 2020, RNIB launched a new online library offering people with sight loss instant access to thousands of free books in formats they can read – including audio. The library now has 40,000 Talking Books in its collection. It was linked to Amazon devices directly when Amazon Alexa RNIB Talking Book skill launched in August 2021.

To become an RNIB Online Library member, please visit the RNIB website or call the RNIB helpline on 0303 123 9999.

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We offer free advice and assessments with no obligation quotations. If you cannot see the solution to your situation then please contact us, on 01722 717 878 as we love to talk.

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Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that I tweet a lot about transport and more specifically about trains. Some of the time it is positive and sometimes not.

The Transport Select Committee have started looking at this as a topic which is helpful, because they bring a different level of focus to this, and the first session looked at the lived experience. I was one of those who gave evidence. In our opening comments we were asked to give a brief outline of our background and then also what we were looking for from the sessions.

My answer is always fairly similar, in that I am looking for the same miserable experience of commuting as everyone else and I am not close to that yet. The committee looked quite shocked