What you need to know following the UK Government’s spending review
Chancellor Rachel Reeves today announced the Spending Review, setting out budgets for government departments through to 2029. RNIB welcomes investment in the NHS and in transport infrastructure, but we remain concerned about the urgent funding needs of local authorities. Without immediate support for vital social care services like vision rehabilitation, many blind and partially sighted people face long waits for the help they need to live independently.
What is a spending review and how does it differ from a budget?
A spending review looks at government spending over a longer period (usually several years), and determines how much money each department (like health, education, or transport) will get in the future. A budget is when the UK Government sets out its plans for how it will raise and spend money over the next year. It includes things like taxes, public services, and support for people and businesses.
This is the first spending review since 2021, and essentially sets out departmental budgets for the majority of this Parliament, although commentators highlight that the detail of how things will add up won’t be clear until the next budget in the autumn.
NHS and eye care
It was announced that NHS funding in England will rise by three per cent a year in real terms. While this is welcome, it comes at a critical moment for eye care services which are under severe pressure, with waiting times that have surged, increasing clinical risk and the danger of people losing their sight unnecessarily.
It's vital that the new funding announced today helps to bring down waiting lists and ensures consistent access to ophthalmology services.
The UK Government should adopt RNIB’s six recently published eye care interventions, which are proven, low cost and will save the NHS money as well as protect people's vision and quality of life.
The Spending Review includes a major increase in spending on moving the NHS from an analogue to a digital age. RNIB welcomes this investment as long as the NHS app’s end-to-end journey, core functionality and future updates are designed and tested for accessibility. It’s also crucial that non-digital ways to communicate still exist for people with sight loss who cannot access the NHS app or digital services.
Importantly, improving NHS digital systems should allow NHS healthcare providers to better record, flag and share patient’s communication needs. This would be an important step forward, and would mean that blind and partially sighted people would only need to share their requirements once.
Social care and vision rehabilitation
We’re deeply concerned that ongoing local authority budget pressures, largely unchanged by today’s announcement, will further threaten vision rehabilitation - a vital adult social care service which people have a right to and which enables blind and partially sighted people to adjust to life after sight loss. These services are already fragmented and too often overlooked.
While the UK Government points to the ongoing independent commission into adult social care reform, without sufficient resources for local authorities to act immediately, many blind and partially sighted people will continue to wait for months to get the support that enables them to live independently.
If you have concerns about the ongoing patchwork of provision of vision rehabilitation services, you can sign our #OutOfSight petition calling on the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to ensure blind and partially sighted people get the support they need when they need it.
Welfare and benefits
In today’s Spending Review, the UK Government talked about their ambition to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels. RNIB welcomes this ambition however we believe this will not be possible if the Government’s planned cuts to essential health and disability benefits go ahead.
The cuts risk pushing many blind and partially sighted people further into financial hardship. MPs will soon be voting on the planned cuts in Parliament. We need your help in calling on MPs to speak out and stop the cuts. Please join over 2000 others who have already written to their MP using our simple template letter.
Forthcoming review of SEND services
The core schools budget will be increased by £2 billion in real terms over the duration of this spending review, which the Government says will support its plan to ensure equal opportunities and recruit more teachers.
Our latest research found one in five local authority vision impairment services in England reported a decrease in the numbers of specialist teachers for vision impairment between 2023 and 2024. It’s critical that recruiting more teachers includes recruiting additional Qualified Teachers of Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (QTVIs). We are keen to see the details of the government’s intended approach to SEND reform, which today’s review confirmed will be set out later this year as part of a Schools White Paper. The current SEND system is in crisis, with some young people with vision impairment (VI) unable to access the specialist support they need and, as a result, leaving school inadequately prepared for adulthood.
If the UK Government is serious about giving every young person an equal chance to succeed, the reforms must address the specific barriers facing children and young people with VI within the SEND system and ensure all local authority vision impairment services are finally adequately resourced.
Travel and transport
RNIB welcomes the funding announced for rail projects across England and Wales, along with four years of funding secured for Transport for London (TfL), provided that this new infrastructure is accessible and designed to remain so for the decades in which these routes and stations will be in use.
What’s next?
Throughout her statement, the Chancellor returned repeatedly to the language of ‘renewal’, seeking to tie this Spending Review to the government’s broader ‘Plan for Change’. There was also clear recognition from the Chancellor that, beyond the headlines of these announcements, people ‘must feel the benefits’ of investment. With MPs set to vote on changes to the welfare system and the government soon to publish its 10 Year Health Plan, RNIB continues to engage with decisionmakers to make the case that genuine ‘renewal’ can only be achieved with more urgent action to improve the lives of blind and partially sighted people.
If you would like to find out more about RNIB’s work, you can get in touch by emailing [email protected] or by calling the RNIB Helpline on 0303 123 9999.
