Thomas Pocklington Trust is a leading advocate for equality of blind and partially sighted people. We are a charitable organisation with a dedicated staff team, over half of whom are blind or partially sighted, and we have over 200 dedicated volunteers who have lived experience of sight loss. Our mission is to support blind and partially sighted people to bring about equity and inclusion in every aspect of society.
Together we are changing mindsets and advocating for better services, equitable access and improved accessibility.
It is generally understood that the England Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system is in crisis. Vision Impairment (VI) education services are under significant pressure. This is culminating in blind and partially sighted (BPS) students struggling to get the education they are entitled to.
Vision impairment is a low incidence disability and can often be overlooked in SEND and education policy change.
Gaps in education support is contributing to a system that is leaving BPS students without the skills, knowledge and experiences needed to thrive into adulthood. The cost of this is significant. Impacting all areas of a young person’s life including their aspirations, personal finances, social inclusion, independence and emotional and mental wellbeing.
Shockingly, only 27% of sight impaired, or severely sight impaired people are in work, compared to employment for non-disabled people at 81%, and for all disabled people 52.7% [1] Employment for BPS people | RNIB).
We welcome the Government’s announcement of the Children’s Wellbeing Bill. To work this Bill must include a focus on improving experiences of the whole education journey for children and young people, including those with low incidence disabilities such as vision impairment, who will require specialist support and access to technology to truly thrive in education.
Qualified teacher for Children and Young people with a visual Impairment (QTVI), are teachers with additional specialist mandatory qualifications. They support and work in educational settings with those involved in a child’s and young person’s education, health and care provisions. Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to provide access to a QTVI (sensory services) for all children and young people with vision impairment and an Education Health and Care plan is not required to access their support.
They play a critical role in
QTVI’s are vital in advising non-specialist professionals, by creating an accessible education environment for blind and partially sighted children and young people.
“I think I may have been one of the fortunate ones who did have everything put in place. I had a separate classroom for my GCSE exams, everything was really well organised, I think it may have been due to my vision impairment teacher being really good.
I received mobility training from the council where I live. There are two different councils, one where I live and one that my school is in… it was the local council where I live that organised the mobility training. This included getting from school to home, and it was really helpful.” Amina, blind or partially sighted young person
There are gaps in QTVI support which is leaving blind and partially sighted children and young people without vistal skills development to support their access to education and the world around them.
Unpredictable, and depleting budgets make for an unreliable system of support for an increasing population of blind and partially sighted children and young people requiring sensory services. Local Authorities struggle to meet existing and growing demands for support and there are difficulties filling vacancies. This instability must be addressed otherwise existing issues faced by blind and partially sighted children and young people will be exacerbated.
57% of Local authorities in 2023 reported a decrease or freeze in the number of QTVI posts available. [RNIB, 2023]
“They need to make teaching SEND more tempting to go into and increase the pay and make it more of a niche. There are all these things saying go into teaching for maths and we will fund your PGCE. They need to apply the same level of motivation and influence behind SEND teachers. Because they are chronically lacking in schools…. They should try and make it less of a black and white guidance list. They need to make education more appealing in terms of teaching SEND students.” Blind or partially sighted young person
Over 30,000 children and young people are estimated to require sensory services and continues to increase each year (RNIB, 2023, England_FOI_report_2023.docx). Emphasis should be given to the recruitment and retainment of specialist professionals to meet the growing demand, as well as for non-specialist support roles to enable them to access subjects that require the interventions of the specialist workforce.
The Curriculum Framework for Children and young people with Vision Impairment (CFVI) sets out all the specialist support required by BPS children and young people in their education journey. The CFVI was developed through rigorous research and was produced in partnership with parents, young people, specialist practitioners and many others. It centres on the needs and voices of BPS children and young people and is designed to enable independence and to empower them to shape their journey to adulthood.
The CFVI sits alongside and is integrated within the mainstream academic curriculum. It focuses on the importance of developing essential lifelong skills such as:
Without access to mobility training how might a BPS person navigate their way to their education setting? Without access to assistive technology training how might they access an application process?
The learning defined in the CFVI is essential to enable successful transitions through education, into adulthood and the workplace. It is vital that the CFVI is adopted into policy across the UK, allowing for consistent support to be provided to all, no matter where they live.
It should be guaranteed that the CFVI is followed by all educational settings supporting children and young people with vision impairment and their families, in partnership with vision impairment specialists, and this shouldn’t be dependent upon where they live.
We are calling on the government to recognise and reference the CFVI in England SEND policies, including the new Children’s Wellbeing Bill, SEND national standards and Change Programme.
Local authorities (LA) have a statutory responsibility to deliver specialist VI services, including Qualified Teachers of Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (QTVIs) and Registered Qualified Habilitation Specialists (RQHSs). However, inconsistent funding and fluctuating LA budgets make it impossible for BPS children and young people to access this support, leading to negative effects on their confidence and ability to access employment opportunities. (Freedom of Information Reports | RNIB).
BPS children and young people should be empowered in their education to make the choices towards the future they envision for themselves. However, they are often limited in their options as they find themselves making decisions about next steps in education depending upon where they will find the support they need.
As emphasised in the CFVI, it is important that specialists are in place to support children and young people to prepare for adulthood, and that this support starts early. However, this support is not consistently delivered, and can drop off completely as BPS students enter post-16 education. Consequently, BPS students are finding themselves locked out of college and apprenticeship provision.
Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to provide SEND support to all children and YP aged 0-25. However, when a young person reaches 16 their support either drops-off or vanishes.
When a BPS student attends an FE college they are required to have an EHCP to access vital sensory service support regardless of whether they needed and EHCP before, if a student attends sixth form this is not required. FE colleges then buy in support form sensory service teams, if the sensory service team actually supports FE which many do not. This is a key example of the inefficiencies of the current system that are leaving BPS CYP left behind. BPS children and young people should have equitable access to education, for this to happen the barriers to accessing further education must be addressed.
We are calling on the government to ensure that adequate ringfenced funding is available to deliver statutory services to blind and partially sighted students in all post-16 education settings.
BPS children and young people should have equitable access to opportunities in life, however, all the evidence tells us that their education is currently failing to deliver this.
The barriers to education are many and long standing. The government have recognised the need for change through commitments to raise educational standards and break down barriers to opportunity. This must include attention to the BPS student experience of education and in the development of change opportunity to hear directly from BPS CYP must be created.
Investment in VI education is an investment for the long term. Not only will we see BPS students better able to reach their educational potential, but we will also see them thriving into adulthood and the workplace, with as much independence as possible.
We are calling on the government to:
We are committed to working with the government towards the implementation of the asks and to continue to amplify the voices and experiences of BPS students.
November 2024
7