Title:
RNIB survey 2: Changes to VI service staffing and provision for blind and partially sighted children and young people in England and Wales.
Author(s):
Sue Keil and Rory Cobb
Publisher:
RNIB
Year of publication:
2011
Background:
In September 2010 RNIB Children, Young People and Families team undertook a questionnaire survey of local authority (LA) advisory services for children and young people with visual impairment (VI) in England and Wales. The survey had found that a number of VI services had experienced cuts to staffing with consequent reductions in a few LAs to provision for some groups of children and young people with visual impairment. There was also considerable apprehension about the future, with many VI services undergoing - or about to undergo - reviews of their service organisation and funding.
In view of the degree of uncertainty about future provision, RNIB undertook a second, follow-up survey in April and May 2011 to get an up to date picture of the situation for VI services in the new financial year, following the implementation of the new local authority budgets.
The aim of the two surveys was to obtain a picture over time of how public sector spending cuts are affecting the organisation and funding of VI services and the implications for educational provision for blind and partially sighted children and young people.
Key findings:
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A total of 35 completed questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 27% of LAs in England and 23% in Wales. This is a much lower response rate than the previous survey and may be an under estimate of the effect of public sector cuts on VI services as RNIB knows of 16 further VI services in England that prior to December 2010, were being re-organised, having staff redundancies and/or experiencing threats to provision for particular groups of children.
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Findings suggest that specialist staff posts continue to be lost, equipment and training budgets have been reduced, and provision for some groups of pupils with visual impairment appears to be at risk.
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This remains an uncertain time for VI services. It is important for local authority senior managers to understand that decisions they are making about the future funding and organisation of VI services will have important and far reaching consequences for the education and life chances of blind and partially sighted children and young people.
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