Work of Special Schools Eye Care Service demonstrated during MP visit

The work of the Special Schools Eye Care Service (SSECS) was demonstrated during a visit from Shockat Adam MP last month (30 June).

Adam, who is an optometrist and the MP for Leicester South, was hosted at Willow Dene special school’s Oakmere Road site in Plumstead, south east London, by SeeAbility.

During the visit, he was taken on a tour of the school by assistant headteacher, Mark Clayton, meeting pupils and staff and seeing the work of the SSECS in action.

Adam said: “My visit was timely, coming as it did in the week the NHS 10-Year Health Plan was launched.

“Everything about this service delivers what the Government says it wishes to see – preventing sight loss as well as shifting eye care into the community. Many of these children would otherwise be under hospital eye clinics,” he added.

Willow Dene was one of the first schools to partner with SeeAbility when it launched its special schools sight testing programme a decade ago.

A successful proof of concept model across 83 special schools began running in 2021.

In 2024, the Government committed to an integrated care board-commissioned programme of sensory checks, including eye examinations, for 165,000 children in special school settings in England.

However, a reduced fee for the SSECS and a more complex administrative process has cast doubt on whether the service can realistically be scaled up.

The Government and the NHS have not “heeded the warnings from experts, special schools and families of children with special educational needs and disabilities that the rollout should mirror what made the service so successful in the first place,” Adam said.

He pledged to take up the issue of the SSECS in Parliament as the new school year approaches.

Lisa Donaldson, SeeAbility’s director of eye care and vision, helped host the visit to Willow Dene, alongside her SeeAbility colleague, dispensing optician, Martyn Howlett.

Donaldson said: “We were so thrilled to have Shockat visit us, given his extensive professional experience in eye care and the platform he now has in Parliament.

“He totally understands what we are trying to achieve, and his passionate advocacy for this service and wider eye care reforms for people with learning disabilities is invaluable.”

Adam is a practising optometrist, elected to Parliament at the 2024 General Election. He sits on both the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and the APPG on Eye Health and Visual Impairment.

“I am passionate about the need for everyone to have an equal right to sight, and I am a great supporter of SeeAbility’s work,” Adam said.

“Being an optometrist, I am keen to get the message out there that anyone can have an eye test regardless of ability to read or speak.”

Lead image, from l-r: Shockat Adam MP, SeeAbility’s Lisa Donaldson and Martyn Howlett, Willow Dene student, Praise, and assistant headteacher, Mark Clayton.