An estimated 25,000 blind and partially sighted children and young people up to the age of 16 in England and Wales need specialist education support. The majority are educated in mainstream schools. A high proportion (around 50 per cent) have additional disabilities and/or special educational needs (SEN) (Keil, 2012a; Keil,2012b).
This section provides useful information and acts as a gateway to the most important research and policy work RNIB has undertaken in this area:
Policy, consultations and guidance
Government policy in education
Find out more about the latest government statements on policy and funding. Local Authority Managers should be aware of these when planning and budgeting for specialist provision.
Local Authority VI service cuts
At present, a number of public sector cuts are being made to services including within the visual impairment sector. The Local Authority (LA) Visual Impairment (VI) Service Cuts pages offer a variety of resources to help provide evidence and arguments to protect necessary levels of support for blind and partially sighted children and young people.
Education consultation responses
RNIB works to ensure that policy takes into account the requirements of blind and partially sighted children and young people and their families. One way that we do this is by responding to national consultations. Read our recent consultation responses on our Education consultation responses page.
Guidelines and quality standards in education
This section includes a collection of external guidance and quality standards for reference, which collectively define what is expected of educational professionals working within the field of visual impairment.
RNIB position statements: education
We have developed a series of RNIB position statements on key aspects of provision to help safeguard the quality of support which blind and partially sighted children and young people require to achieve their potential.
Partnership working in education
In addition to working with children and young people, RNIB works strategically with key organisations and consortia within the special educational needs and disability and vision impairment field. Find out more in our partnership working in education pages.
Key Research
Education and sight loss: facts and figures
This section provides facts and figures about education for children and young people with visual impairment, and provides a gateway to the most important research and policy work RNIB has undertaken in this area.
Key external research in education
Visit our key external research pages to find out about the latest research from across the sector. You can also visit the RNIB Research pages to find our latest education research reports and other relevant research relating to children and young people, complex needs and employment of blind and partially sighted people. All RNIB research reports can be downloaded from the website.
Research in progress
Optimum VI Project - Babies with Visual Impairment
This major new project is arousing huge interest across the whole of the UK. This is the first national research study of its kind into the early development of babies and young children with a visual impairment. The findings are likely to have significant implications for our understanding about the best ways to support babies with a visual impairment and will be of interest to both professionals and parents in the UK and internationally. The project is a funding partnership between Fight for Sight, RNIB and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity. The project is led by the Developmental Vision team of Great Ormond Street Hospital/University College London Institute of Child Health (ICH) (under the leadership of Dr Naomi Dale and Dr Alison Salt).
Between now and May 2013, the research team will be continuing to recruit infants aged 0 to 15 months with severe to profound visual impairment to take part in the study (excluding children with additional severe motor or hearing impairments) and would like to hear from families anywhere in the UK. If you are interested in taking part or are working with a family of a baby with a visual impairment that you think may be eligible, please contact Dr. Elena Sakkalou or Dr. Michelle O'Reilly on 020 7599 4124 or email e.sakkalou@ucl.ac.uk, m.oreilly@ucl.ac.uk
Latest education research