Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of children in receipt of the NHS Special Schools Eye Care Service have (a) a need for glasses and (b) another sight problem.

From April 2021 to September 2023, there have been 15,858 sight tests completed under the NHS Special Schools Eye Care Service. Of these, 10,785 have no history of hospital-based eye care attached to them, 1,672 are listed as being active in hospital-based eye care and 3,401 have been discharged from hospital.

From the 15,858 sight tests, 6,784 were issued with glasses. NHS England does not hold information on other sight problems in this cohort of patients.