SIGHT TESTS IN SPECIAL SCHOOLS

That this House is concerned that thousands of children with learning disabilities, who are estimated to be 28 times more likely to have a serious sight problem, are not accessing their right to a free NHS sight test; believes that work by the charity SeeAbility and others in special schools has shown that sight testing in a safe, familiar and convenient environment by professionals, helps a child co-operate with a sight test, understand the benefits of wearing glasses and to participate and achieve their full potential in school; draws attention to SeeAbility's report entitled, An Equal Right to Sight, which calls for a national plan to meet the eye care needs of children with learning disabilities in England; observes that paying optometrists the same fee for attending a special school as they receive for a high street sight test does not reflect the adjusted and specialist eye examinations these children crucially need; and, as a start, encourages the Government and the NHS to work together to create a comprehensive national programme and a properly-funded system to make sight tests available in all special schools in England, therefore supporting over 100,000 children in special schools who have the most complex needs.