NHS Special School Eye Care Service

Children with learning disabilities are 28 times more likely to have a serious sight problem.

Our peer reviewed research shows that thousands of children with disabilities across the country are missing out on the eye care they need. Over four in ten pupils we have seen had no history of eye tests or eye care, and yet half of the children have a problem with their eyes or vision, and at least a third need glasses.

NHS England responded to our findings from this work by committing to providing a fully funded eye care and glasses service to all special school students, which had begun to rollout to over 80 special schools in 2021. In 2022 rollout halted for an evaluation.

Following a campaign by SeeAbility and many others, in 2023 a revived government commitment was made to special schools eye care with rollout across England from 2024/25. This was confirmed again by the new government in 2024. Local health bodies, called integrated care boards (ICBs), have been asked by the government and national NHS to start to commission this service in 2025. As more news comes in we will keep this page updated or please see the bottom of this page for more contact information.

Adeboye having an eye test in his school uniform

Background

The NHS special schools eye care service is based upon the 'Framework for the provision of eye care in special schools in England' paper, written in collaboration with the country's optical bodies. All children will be offered a full vision and eye health assessment, at least every year and more often if needed. When children need glasses, these will be provided free of charge and children will be supported to get used to wearing new glasses. Plain English reports will be shared with parents/carers and teachers to explain each child’s visual abilities and needs, so that everyone understands how best to support them to get the best possible vision and, where necessary, how to adapt their education and support.

Launching the programme in 2021, NHS England had produced a series of 3 films for special school staff, parents/ carers and clinicians to explain more about the new special schools eye care services.

NHS England also worked with SeeAbility, Contact and the National Deaf Children’s Society to produce a series of 3 guides for families on eye checks, hearing checks and dental checks for children with a learning disability or who are autistic. The guides explain why these health checks are important, how they are done, how to access them and how to prepare and support your child.

The ambition of NHS England’s Eye Care programme was to eventually improve access to eye care services for all people with a learning disability or who are autistic and SeeAbility is also campaigning to ensure these wider changes happen. Please see our policy position for more analysis. However, for children who do not attend a special school, or where an in school service is not yet established, an eye test at least every year is recommended. All children under the age of 16, or 19 and in full time education, are entitled to a free NHS eye test carried out by an optometrist at a community opticians and vouchers will be made available to purchase glasses for those who need them. You can arrange this yourself and do not need to be referred. This test will include checking how well your child can see, how the eyes work as a pair, how the eyes are focused (to see if glasses are needed) and the health of the eyes inside and outside.

Children can also be referred by their GP, paediatrician or optometrist to a community vision clinic or hospital eye clinic where necessary.

SeeAbility’s Special School Eye Care Service

SeeAbility have been providing eye care and glasses in a number of special schools since 2013 and currently work in 0ver 50 London special schools. Our team of specialist optometrists, orthoptists and dispensing opticians have all completed the City St Georges University of London Special School Eye Care training, and our senior team supported its delivery and teach on the course, which is recommended for all special school eye care providers.

If you are an eye care professional and want to keep up to date on the area of learning disability eye care and special schools eye care services, please follow our LinkedIn group.

Read the Eye care and vision strategy 2024-2027.

The Bradford Visual Function Box

People with learning disabilities are 10x more likely to have serious sight problems. But traditional eye tests can be challenging. The Bradford Visual Function Box's innovative approach means you don't need to communicate to have your eyes tested.

Everyone can have an eye test – you don’t need to be able to read or speak.

Find out more

NASEN Guide to Eye Care for Teachers

We have worked with the National Association of Special Educational Needs to produce a guide for teaching staff on eye care and its importance.

Our awards

The SeeAbility Eye Care Team on stage with their award

In 2024 we won Team of the Year award at the RNIB's 2024 See Differently Awards. The award reflects our hard work in convincing the government to commit to rolling out the NHS Special Schools Eye Care Service across all special schools in England.

In 2024, SeeAbility’s Senior Dispensing Optician and Dispensing Team Lead Martyn Howlett won Dispensing Optician of the Year at the Optician Awards.

In 2021 we won the Overall Award for Excellence at the prestigious Charity Awards, as well as picking up the category winner for the Healthcare and medical research award.

In 2020, in partnership with the schools where we provide eye care, we won the NASEN (National Association of Special Schools) Provision of the Year Award 2019.

In 2019, our research was awarded the College of Optometrists Giles Van Colle Memorial Award for Excellence in Paediatric Clinical Research.

In 2017, our Dispensing Optician Ned Saunders was awarded the Optician Magazine Dispensing Optician of the Year Award for his work in special schools.

Get in touch

For more information on our work in special schools, contact eyecare@seeability.org.

NHS Contacts on next steps

For more information on the NHS England national Special Schools Eye Care Service and work to establish it in your area, find your local health body (ICB) here.

Further resources and campaigning

Why not watch our new film, launched for World Sight Day 2025 which describes the long history of the campaign to establish a new national programme of eye care for special schools in England. Some of the background are in earlier campaign reports are below.