Establishing a new care pathway for children with vision impairment

There are over 40,000 children and young people living with sight loss across the UK, and for each of them, it represents more than just difficulty with your vision. Children and young people with vision impairment have lower academic attainment and lower rates of employment later in life.

To address this critical area of unmet need, WA were proud to work with Guide Dogs, one of the UK’s leading sight loss charities, to establish a new care pathway for children and young people living with vision impairment.

Services in this area are wide ranging and multi-faceted, from low vision clinics and habilitation services to social care and specialist ophthalmology.

Our work set out to explore the challenges faced by children with vision impairment, and opportunities to improve the care and support that they receive.

We interviewed some of the most well-respected experts in the sector to grapple with where things are working well and how they could be better. This wasn’t about finding out how each element could improve – it was about demonstrating how the whole system could work in unison.

We helped to develop a pathway that children and their families can use to navigate health, care and education systems and understand what support is available. The pathway is aligned with professional standards – ensuring that services are equitable across the board.

Our work led us to discussions with some incredibly passionate individuals: teachers working overtime to establish working groups, doctors fighting campaigns to secure better support for children in special schools, and parents utterly committed to improving the system for future children.

But it’s not sustainable to rely on individual commitment. Children and young people should all be entitled to the best care regardless of where they live.

The Eye Care Support Pathway for Children and Young People is the result of several years of in-depth research.  

This pathway sets out what care could and should look like and demonstrates how children, young people and their families should be made to feel at every step. If successfully implemented, it will help to ensure that people get the right support at the right time.

Receiving a vision impairment diagnosis can be an unsettling time, with overwhelming amounts of information and technical terms throughout the journey. This pathway can help health, education and social care services to ensure children and their families are well informed to manage it confidently.

The Eye Care Support Pathway for Children and Young People has already received cross-sector backing and full endorsement from the National Clinical Director for Eye Care Services. Our hope is that this can allow children with sight loss and their families to benefit from the best support and care possible.

Alex Clarke, Senior Policy, Public Affairs and Campaigns Manager at Guide Dogs said:

“Guide Dogs were thrilled to work with WA Communications on the Eye Care Support Pathway for Children and Young people. WA’s support in helping us gather insights from healthcare professionals and commissioners, parents and young people, and in the drafting of the pathway has been key in enabling the sector to launch the Pathway.”

For more information on how WA Health can support your organisation to build cross-sector consensus and engage policymakers at a local and national level, get in touch with Lloyd Tingley at LloydTingley@wacomms.co.uk.