Getting the right support to access education

In most cases, you can get specialist support from the moment your child is identified as having difficulties caused by their vision. This support is generally provided by the Sensory Service's Vision Impairment Team and is available in:

• The home, if your child isn't yet of school age
• Pre-school settings such as nurseries
• School (mainstream or special)
• College

Children and young people with VI are usually referred to their Local Authority/Education Authority's Sensory Service by eye health professionals, but families can also either make their Sensory Service aware of their concerns directly or get help from school to do this.

This Sensory Service Spreadsheet links to the provision and contact details for Sensory Service Vision Impairment Teams across the UK:

Download the Sensory Service Spreadsheet

The type and level of specialist support available in certain other settings, including some early years settings, special schools, private (fee-paying) schools and for home education, can vary from region to region.

For more information on what support is available for your child or for help contacting your local authority VI team, please contact RNIB Helpline on 0303 123 9999.

The first step towards getting the right support is for relevant specialists from the Sensory Service to carry out initial assessments. The main specialist support will be a Qualified Teacher for Vision Impairment (QTVI) or Qualified Teacher for Multi-Sensory Impairment (QTMSI). QTVIs and QTMSIs are qualified teachers who work for the local authority and specialise in teaching children and young people up to the age of 25 who have disabilities. This professional is likely to make recommendations and carry out specialist training with the other professionals around you.

You are also likely to meet a Registered Qualified Habilitation Specialist (RQHS), who is a specialist in mobility and independent living skills, such as crossing roads or finding their way to the shop. For a child or young person with VI and additional needs, other professionals may also be involved, such as Occupational Therapists or Speech and Language Therapists.

These professionals will find out what difficulties your child is having by speaking to you and the staff that work with your child, by observing your child learning, playing and doing other activities in their usual environment, and they may also do some targeted assessment activities in an individual session. The information they gather will enable them to recommend adaptations and intervention programmes that can be put in place to improve access to learning and the wider education experience. They will also consider what needs to happen for your child to be supported to develop their independence and skills ready for the future.

Specialist professionals will write a report based on their assessment and this will contain their recommendations for the support that needs to be put in place.

Everyone will work together to create a written plan of support. Usually, the member of staff in the education setting who has responsibility for additional needs or special educational needs will organise a meeting for those involved to decide together what should go in the plan. The reports prepared by specialist professionals will be key, along with input from education staff who work with the child or young person on a regular basis. It is very important that the views, concerns and hopes of you and your child are listened to at this meeting and taken account of in any decisions.

The written plan will be centred around what is needed for your child to achieve their potential both in the short term and the longer term, so as well as addressing current concerns, it should be forward looking.

Written plans of support can be referred to by various other names including Child’s Plans (Scotland), Coordinated Support Plans (Scotland), Education, Health and Care Plans (England), Individual Development Plans (Wales), Individual Education Plans (across the UK), Personal Learning Plans (NI) and Statements (Northern Ireland and Wales).

Support plans should recognise two key factors:

1. Certain adjustments will be needed to make the education experience inclusive for children and young people with VI.
2. Children, and young people with VI should have access to suitably qualified professionals to help them develop specialist skills that will enable them to thrive.

You should be able to request a copy of your child’s written plan of support from the education setting at any time.

The links and resources in these guides have been written to help parents/carers understand more about different types of support plans.

Download Education Plans: Information for families

Download Education Plans: Information for families (Welsh)

Once a plan of support has been agreed, the education setting (such as a school or college) and the Sensory Service VI Team (along with any other relevant support services) will work together to put everything in place. They will continually monitor your child's progress and how well the support is working; feedback from you and your child is important to help identify what's working well and what could be better.

Support needs change over time as a child or young person matures, as they move from one setting to another and as their skills and abilities develop. As a result of this, the written plan of support should be reviewed at least annually, but you can ask for it to be reviewed earlier if you have concerns or if something has changed, for example if there has been a change in vision.

The same professional from the education setting who led on creating the initial plan will usually arrange a review meeting that includes you, your child, the QTVI, and any other specialist professionals involved, and provide an updated report.

The review will centre around how well the support in the current plan is enabling your child to participate in learning and the life of the school as well as what they need to prepare them for the next stage of their education. The aim of these discussions is to decide what changes need to be made to the plan so that your child is getting the right support at the right time.

The links and resources below are intended to provide parents/carers with information to help ease the process of transition from primary to secondary education.

VI specific

• Six Steps for Starting Secondary School - Thomas Pocklington Trust
• Moving on up to Secondary School – Royal Society for Blind Children
• Top Tips for Going Back to School – LOOK – Supporting Visually Impaired Young People to Thrive
• VICTA has compiled a list of some specialist VI schools and schools with VI resources bases: Schools & colleges - victaparents.org.uk

General

• Young Minds Find Your Feet Schools Resource. In this short video for children, year 7 pupils share their experience of moving from primary school.
• Moving Up! The transition to secondary school (SUBTITLED). This short video for children looks at the transition to secondary school.
• How Parents Can Help With Secondary School Transition | YoungMinds is a 5-minute read with some top tips.
• Starting high school | Top Ten Tips for parents and families | Parenting across Scotland.
• Starting secondary school - BBC Parents' Toolkit - BBC Bitesize has a range of resources to support transition.
• Supporting Children and Young Peoples Transition to Secondary School – a booklet focusing on supporting wellbeing during transition to secondary school: Shared link.

Communication is the most important thing to maintain between your family, the education setting, and the QTVI. Working together will help your child become as capable and independent as possible. It is important to recognise what’s going well as well as what is not; use the positive impact as a base to build on while you are addressing anything that hasn’t worked. Work together to resolve any issues and celebrate successes.

Education settings and support services of students with vision impairment, dyslexia, dyspraxia or other print disabilities can sign up RNIB Bookshare for free to access curriculum materials in accessible formats. This includes:

• A free online resource base of curriculum materials available to schools, colleges, and universities across the UK
• Over one million books in a range of accessible formats and thousands of images
• A portal for learners who cannot read standard print
• The Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (CFVI) resource hub.

Learners and their families can be given login details to access RNIB Bookshare for homework and revision.

Sign up to RNIB Bookshare

Getting the right support can be a complex process and can involve many parties. If you are not happy with the support your child is receiving, speak with both the professional in the education setting who has responsibility for additional needs or special educational needs and your QTVI. If you are not satisfied with how your concerns are being addressed, you may wish to contact one of the following organisations for further information, advice and support:

• England: SENDIAS Find your local IAS service and (IPSEA) Independent Provider of Special Education Advice
• Northern Ireland: The Special Educational Needs Advice Centre (SENAC) – Supporting parents of children with special educational needs in Northern Ireland and Children’s Law Centre – Children’s Rights Change Children’s Lives
• Scotland: Enquire - The Scottish advice service for additional support for learning
• Wales: Home - Snap Cymru

All these key factors are explained in more detail, along with a wide range of examples, in the Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (CFVI). This document clearly sets out the skills that are important for children and young people with vision impairment, so it’s helpful for everyone in the team around a child to look at together when thinking about support needs.

In addition to the main document, a group of parents have produced a CFVI Guide for parents and carers with suggestions for how the framework might be used to help get the right support.

Support plans for children and young people with VI will be specific to the individual but will often include provision such as:

• Adjustments to the environment, for instance yellow paint on edges of steps and making signage accessible.
• Training for mainstream staff.
• A seating position close to the board and the teacher.
• Work provided in large print/electronic format/braille with images that have been adapted to make them easier to access.
• Provision of specialist equipment and training for its use.
• Additional time for assessments.
• Specialist teaching for braille, assistive technology, mobility and independent living skills.
• Specialist input to develop self-advocacy skills and for emotional wellbeing.

You should be able to request a copy of your child’s written plan of support from the education setting at any time.

To find more examples of the additional support that might be helpful for your child, take a look at the Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment.

RNIB provides free, specialist advice and support for children and young people with vision impairment – from birth to age 25 – and their families.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for, or you’d like more information about anything mentioned on this page, we can help.

We offer:

• family, early years and transitions support
• support for education professionals
• advice about accessible books, toys and learning materials
• opportunities to meet and talk with other families.

Please contact our Helpline on 0303 123 9999.