Vision screening of 4 to 5 year olds at school entry

The request was successful.

The College of Optometrists

Dear FOI officer

The British and Irish Orthoptic Society on behalf of the Clinical Council for Eye Health Commissioning are writing to make an open request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

There is a national recommendation, by the UK National Screening committee, to offer orthoptic-led vision screening to children at aged 4-5 years, mainly to ensure that amblyopia (reduced vision), is detected and treated at an age where treatment has the potential to improve vision.

Public Health England introduced service specifications for a Vision Screening Service in 2017. We are concerned that a Vision Screening service is currently not being offered to all children aged 4-5 years in England leading to inequality of eye health care provision.

We are aware that the responsibility for commissioning 0 - 5 year children’s public health services has transferred from the NHS to Local Authorities; and that in addition there are to be significant cuts to Local Authority Public Health funding which may affect these services

We would be grateful if you could answer the following questions (for the financial year 2019/2020) to determine the arrangements made by your local authority to commission vision screening for your eligible resident population and it’s quality assurance.

We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Olivier Denève
Secretary to the Clinical Council for Eye Health Commissioning

Questions

1. Do you currently commission vision screening in school of children aged 4-5 years old? Y / N

If YES, would you please:

2. List the key features of your commissioned screening service:

a. Settings (e.g. school).
b. Screening personnel (e.g. orthoptist, school nurse or other health professional).
c. The onward care pathway for children who fail the vision screening.
d. The quality assurance (QA) processes (audit) and identified clinical lead for the vision screening service

3. Tell us how you monitor if every child in your Local Authority has been tested (including those in private schools or those who are home-schooled).

4. Tell us whether the programme will be commissioned again in the next financial year

5. If NO- you do not currently commission a vision screening service in your area, would you please tell us :

a. why you do not commission vision screening?
b. whether a service is planned for the next financial year (2020/21)?
c. whether an existing service in your area has been recently decommissioned?

Halton Borough Council

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Simon Bell, Halton Borough Council

1 Attachment

Please find enclosed a response to your recent FOI request.

With best regards

Simon

 

Simon Bell

Public Health Commissioning Manager and Programme Lead for Sexual Health,

Substance Misuse and 0-19 Services

Halton Borough Council

Town Hall, Heath Road, Runcorn, Cheshire WA7 5TD

Office: 0151 511 6736

[1][email address]

 

 

• This email is from Halton Borough Council. It is intended for the
indicated addressees only and shall be confidential. If this email has
come to you in error you must not disclose it or its contents or take any
action based on it, nor must you copy it to anyone; If received in error
please inform us immediately quoting the name of the sender and the email
address to which it has been sent from and then please delete it. • Please
note that this message has been created in the knowledge that Internet
e-mail is not a 100% secure communication medium. We strongly advise that
you bear this in mind and act on it when sending or receiving e-mail. •
This communication does not, unless expressly indicated by the sender in
the body of the message, create or modify any contract. • Although this
e-mail and its attachments are believed to be clear of any virus, it is
the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that the email message and
any attachments are scanned to ensure that they do not carry any such
virus. Please note that neither Halton Borough Council nor the sender
accepts any responsibility for viruses or any loss arising from them. •
Halton Borough Council does not accept liability for any statements made
which are clearly the senders own personal views and are not expressly
made on behalf of Halton Borough Council. • The information contained in
this email may be subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 or other legal duty. Unless the information is
legally exempt from disclosure, the confidentiality of this email AND YOUR
REPLY cannot be guaranteed. • Halton Borough Council is the Data
Controller for Data Protection legislation in relation to any personal
information shared within this email or attachment which has been
collected and processed by the Council. Privacy notices can be viewed at
http://www.halton.gov.uk/privacynotices HBC1html

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