Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his department has issued guidance on steps to help increase Child Vision Screening Programmes.

The UK National Screening Committee recommends vision screening for children aged four to five years old. Information on the UK National Screening Committee is available at the following link

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-national-screening-committee

The aim is to identify children with reduced vision in one or both eyes so that defects can be rectified early. Local authorities are responsible for this as part of the Healthy child programme, although it is not mandated. Further information on the Healthy child programme is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/healthy-child-programme

The Department has published a suite of resources to support the commissioning and delivery of high-quality, consistent child vision screening services, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/child-vision-screening