The Luton Visual Impairment Outreach Service for babies and children up to 11 years old

The Visual Impairment Outreach Service is led by Mrs Kate Collings, a qualified teacher of the visually impaired (QTVI). Kate has a part time VI assistant outreach worker who helps to visits the VI children under 3.

The service provides a core service to schools as part of our statutory role. The QTVI is always required to provide visual impairment information and advice when a child is going through the statutory assessment process (for an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment).

The service is also a ‘traded service’ and schools can use their delegated special educational needs (SEN) funding to purchase VI hours to access the service if they’re an academy.

Who does the VI service support?

The VI service supports children in Luton who are born with or develop a visual impairment during their early years, from birth up to the end of year 6 in primary school. To meet the criteria for VI service support, the children must have:

• a visual acuity of 6/12 Snellen measurements or worse
• a visual impairment diagnosis

They do not have to have an EHC plan to receive VI service input.

The following children do meet the criteria for support:

• those whose vision is fully corrected by wearing glasses
• those who wear glasses but still have impaired vision (6/12 or worse)

What does the VI outreach service do?

Children under 3 are supported via home visits, where targets are set for the child and the family. Targets are taken from the developmental journal for babies and children who are visually impaired.

The VI service supports families:

• to develop essential early learning skills with their child
• with transitions to nurseries
• funding signposting
• advisory support in educational settings

Children who are already in nursery or school settings, up to the end of year 6, receive a number of visits from the QTVI across the academic year, according to the severity of their visual impairment. This category of need is worked out using the criteria given in the NATSIP guidelines for children who have visual impairments.

Children who have a visual impairment as well as complex medical or additional SEN are visited in home settings and in special school settings also by the QTVI. The VI service works with Lady Zia and Richmond Hill Special schools throughout the school year.

During visits to educational settings a number of services are offered:

• functional vision assessments to ascertain how much the child can see
  Using Kay’s crowded pictures, a level of functional visual acuity is measured, whilst looking at the images with both eyes simultaneously. This is to assess the best vision the pupil has whilst wearing glasses (if they have them) using both eyes and in a relaxed environment. Clinical visual acuity is testing each eye, without glasses to aid vision and is done in a clinic or hospital which can affect the child’s anxiety levels and subsequent vision.
• advisory and observational visits in educational settings
• a set amount of visits per child, per academic year - this is calculated based on the severity of the child’s visual needs using the NATSIP criteria for children who have a visual impairment
• support with the writing of EHCP applications
• monitoring and reviewing EHCPs
• written and verbal advice given to schools for annual reviews, when requested
• liaison with local hospital and eye clinics for up to date medical information and to support local families

How do you get involvement from the service and who can refer or request involvement?

Children and babies can be referred into the VI service via:

• their GP
• ophthalmologist,
• eye clinic liaison officer
• school SENCO
• nursery manager

A referral form can be requested directly via email to:

• the QTVI: kcollings@chantryprimaryacademy.com
• team leader for SENS: Tracey.Spence@luton.gov.uk

Once the referral has been received with the relevant diagnosis paperwork or medical letters attached, a visit from the QTVI will be scheduled within 6 weeks. The VI outreach service runs during school term time only.

An initial assessment visit will take place to see where the child sits within the NATSIP criteria, to be able to deem the number of future visits to the child.

What happens after the service has been involved?

What follows? For example, report or remain on caseload?

After each visit a written advisory report is created and forwarded to the families’ home if the child is not yet in an educational setting. If they’re already in education , two copies of the report are forwarded to the nursery or school, with a request for one copy of the report to be shared by the school with the family and then sent home with the child.

Depending on the level of need, further visits may be booked by the QTVI throughout the school year.

If the child only requires light touch support they may only need one visit per academic year. If the child has more severe VI needs they may receive one visit per term or half term if a program of study such as braille is needed to be completed.

On occasion inreach has taken place in Chantry Primary Academy in Luton, where the VI provision is based. Chantry Primary Academy is the only primary Visual Impairment Provision in Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire.

The provision is entirely inclusive within the mainstream classes and is extremely popular with parents, due to the high levels of specialist resources and support children

The VI staff team are experienced in the field of visual impairment.

The provision is run by Mrs Kate Collings, who is also the QTVI outreach teacher for Luton. There are 16 allocated places for pupils to be supported by members of the VI team in VI provision at Chantry.

To be considered for a place in the VI provision children need:

• a visual acuity level of 6/12 or worse
• an active EHCP with visual impairment being their primary area of need

See a PowerPoint presentation on the VI provision page on the Chantry Primary Academy website.

What can parents, CYP and families do if they’re not eligible for the service? What can schools don’t feel they can refer to this service?

The VI service works alongside Luton eye clinics and the hospital eye services, and has close links with the Luton based charity Sight Concern. Those seeking advice and support for sight loss or help with applying for disability living allowance for their child or applying for a blue badge can also be supported by Sight Concern.

The VI service can also signpost families to other organisations that can offer sight loss advice such as the RNIB or charities that offer grants to families for necessary equipment for their child to successfully accessing learning at home