FOI Request - Children/Young People with Vision Impairment

Request 101003167158

Information request:

1. How many children aged 0-4 are known to your services as having a vision impairment?   

2. How many qualified Habilitation specialists are employed directly by your local authority to provide services supporting children and young people (0 – 18 years of age) with impaired vision?

3. How many hours of Habilitation is provided each week in your local authority area to children and young people (0 – 18) with impaired vision (either via directly employed staff or via contracted staff?)

4. What was your allocated budget (for the fiscal year 2021 - 2022) for the provision of habilitation services to children and young people?

5. Is your habilitation service delivered in either a) school or b) community, c) home, or d) all three (school, community and home).

6. How are Habilitation support services delivered in your local authority? Please choose an option from the list below.
· Local authority employed Habilitation Specialist
· An external organisation is commissioned to deliver Habilitation services (please give name of external organisation)
· Services are spot purchased
· Other (please specify)
· No Habilitation Services are delivered in the local authority

7. The Visual Impairment Network for Children and Young People (VINCYP) have a standard that “Each local authority has a service for children with VI through which all children have an assessment of need by a habilitation specialist, qualified to work with children, within 4 weeks of referral.”

During the fiscal year 2021-2022 (6 April 2021 to 5 April 2022), how many children with a VI have had to wait longer than 4 weeks for an assessment of need by a habilitation specialist?

8. What was the total number of children assessed by a Habilitation specialist for your local authority from 6 April 2021 to 5 April 2022?

Response 08-11-2022

1. 0

2. 0

3. According to need
4. £5,000

5. School, community and home according to need

6. An external organisation is commissioned to deliver Habilitation services - North East Sensory Services (NESS)

7. Not held - we have not maintained records for this. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.

8. Not held - we have not maintained records for this. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.