London Assembly member calls for South East London optical practices to join the Easy Eye Care pathway

A London Assembly member has called for optical practices to increase accessibility for people with learning disabilities and autism by signing up to the Easy Eye Care pathway.

Marina Ahmad, a London Assembly member representing Lambeth and Southwark, in South London, said that there should be increased access to specialist optical services in the area during Learning Disability Week (15-21 June).

The Easy Eye Care service, which launched in South East London in September 2023, provides eye tests for people with learning disabilities and autism of all ages. Currently, no practices in Southwark are offering the service.

Ahmad met Grace McGill, a SeeAbility London Eye Care Champion, during the charity’s Guinness World Record event near Tower Bridge in May.

During the event, McGill spoke to Ahmad about her personal experience of eye care as a person with a learning disability.

Ahmad, who is a member of the London Assembly Health Committee, said: “We recognise the importance of good eye care for people of all ages, but this was the first time I’d heard how having a learning disability comes with a much greater risk of having a sight problem.”

She added: “The Easy Eye Care service provides individually-tailored eye care to people who often miss out on eye tests and are at greater risk of sight loss.”

The service supports people who are likely to be missing out on routine eye care, by providing eye care practitioners with longer appointments, the skills to carry out a more accessible eye test, and the ability to provide support to those with learning disabilities.

There is also a domiciliary scheme for patients who cannot travel to practices.

It would be “fantastic” if Southwark optical practices came forward to join the service “so that no-one misses out, and to ensure that everyone can have an equal right to sight,” Ahmad said.

The pathway was commissioned by South East London Integrated Care Board in 2023, in partnership with local optical committees in the area.

Optical practices in Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark are able to sign up to provide the service.

In April 2024, Ahmad’s Labour Party colleague, Vicky Foxcroft MP, visited an optical practice in Deptford to see the pathway in action.

McGill said: “I would love to see opticians taking part in Southwark so people with learning disabilities and autism don’t have to travel to an optician in another borough to receive this specialist care.

“The difference properly adapted and adjusted eye care can make to a person with a learning disability and autism is life-changing, particularly if someone cannot say there is a problem.”

Practices or practitioners who are interested in providing the Easy Eye Care pathway can contact SeeAbility via email.

Lead image: Marina Ahmad, centre, with Grace McGill and SeeAbility colleagues during the charity's successful Guinness World Record Attempt at Potter's Fields in May 2026