Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take together with NHS England to ensure that children currently in receipt of the NHS Special Schools Eye Care Service who attend day special schools will continue to access the service to meet their needs.

The NHS Long Term Plan made a commitment to ensure that children and young people with a learning disability and/or autism in special residential schools have access to sight checks in school. To fulfil that commitment, NHS England commenced a proof-of-concept programme in 2021, piloting sight testing and the dispensing of glasses in special schools.

NHS England are currently considering the evaluation of this special school programme, to determine how services to meet the eye care needs of children with learning disabilities in school settings should be commissioned and will set out next steps shortly.