Vision Care introduces Right to Sight Week

Vision Care is highlighting the barriers that people experiencing homelessness can face when accessing eye care through a new week-long campaign and sharing a first look at its new partner programme for optical practices.

The charity is bringing together the messages of World Sight Day (8 October) and World Homeless Day (10 October) into a week-long campaign, Right to Sight Week, running from 5–10 October.

Hannah Telfer, chief executive of Vision Care said: “Right to Sight Week is about bringing two worlds together.”

“There is an enormous amount of expertise, compassion and willingness to help within the optical sector. But unless you work directly alongside people experiencing homelessness, you may never see just how difficult accessing something as fundamental as an eye examination or a pair of glasses can become when you do not have a settled home,” she said.

Three aims: see, reach, change

The campaign is shaped by three aims: making the barriers visible, taking eye care to people, and creating lasting impact.

Right to Sight Week aims to shed light on the practical, financial and systemic barriers that can make accessing routine eye care more difficult for people experiencing homelessness.

The charity highlighted that this can mean “eye problems go untreated, glasses are harder to obtain or replace, and accessing routine NHS eye care becomes more complicated than it should be.”

Through the campaign, Vision Care aims to demonstrate “what can happen when services are designed differently,” by delivering one of its busiest weeks of eye care to date.

Vision Care teams, volunteers and partners will be delivering additional activity through its static clinics, mobile vision services, and outreach.

The charity hopes that Right to Sight Week will help to build momentum for longer-term change and is calling for national policy and system changes that would make NHS eye care more accessible to people experiencing homelessness.

“Vision Care believes that charitable services can demonstrate what is possible and meet immediate need, but they cannot remove every barrier within the wider system,” the charity shared.

Introducing the campaign, Telfer said: “Throughout the week, our teams, volunteers and partners will be delivering eye care and showing what is possible when the optical and homelessness sectors work together.”

Telfer emphasised: “But charitable services alone cannot solve everything. We also need changes to the systems and policies that determine who can access NHS eye care and how.”

“Our vision is simple. We envisage a future where no one is denied the right to sight because of their housing status. Right to Sight Week is about asking our sector to help us make that future a reality,” she said.

Vision Care aims to make Right to Sight Week an annual flagship campaign to bring together awareness, service delivery, partnership, advocacy and innovation.

We envisage a future where no one is denied the right to sight because of their housing status. Right to Sight Week is about asking our sector to help us make that future a reality

Partner programme first look

During Right to Sight Week, Vision Care plans to reveal a first look at its forthcoming Partner Opticians programme, which it aims to build into a national network of homelessness-informed optical practices that can be signposted to by support organisations.

The programme has been developed to give optical practices a practical way to become part of the charity’s work, including in areas where there are not currently Vision Care clinics.

Practices will receive training, resources and support to build their understanding of homelessness and the barriers to accessing eye care.

Teams will be supported to consider practical elements of the patient experience, including communication, staff confidence, the practice environment, and how services can feel welcoming, respectful and accessible.

Participating practices will be encouraged to form constructive relationships with local homelessness, housing and support services.