SeeAbility hosts optometrist MP
L-R: Shockat Adam MP, Lisa Donaldson, Martyn Howlett, Oakmere student Praise, and Mark Clayton
Charity SeeAbility and Willow Dene Oakmere Road special school in Greenwich, London, hosted the first practising optometrist MP to be elected to parliament, Shockat Adam, recently to see the charity’s eyecare work in action.
Shockat Adam MP is the independent MP for Leicester South, and is also vice chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and officer for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Eye Health and Vision.
On learning more about SeeAbility’s work to improve eyecare, Shockat said, “I am passionate about the need for everyone to have an equal right to sight, and I am a great supporter of SeeAbility’s work. Being an optometrist, I am keen to get the message out there that anyone can have an eye test regardless of ability to read or speak.”
Willow Dene and its Oakmere Road campus was one of the first schools to partner with SeeAbility on a sight testing programme a decade ago. This unearthed that nearly half of special school pupils had never had any eye care.
Shockat took a tour of the school with assistant headteacher, Mark Clayton, meeting pupils and staff, and learning how the delivery of eyecare has been transformative and supportive to children and young people with SEND and their families.
“In 2024, the evidence from this award winning work led NHS England and the government to commit to rollout a special schools eyecare service across England,” said the charity in a press statement. “However, the issue is now whether the service can be scaled up because of changes to the successful proof of concept model, which has operated since 2021 in 83 special schools. The rollout is based on a much-reduced fee, and a less specialist but more administratively complex system for parents, schools and eyecare professionals.”
Shockat continued: “My visit was timely, coming as it did in the week the NHS 10 Year Plan was launched. Everything about this service delivers what the government says it wishes to see – preventing sight loss as well as shifting eyecare into the community. Many of these children would otherwise be under hospital eye clinics.
“However, the government and NHS hasn’t heeded the warnings from experts, special schools and families of children with SEND that the rollout should mirror what made the service so successful in the first place. These are matters I have pledged to take up in parliament, particularly as we come to the start of the new school year in September when you would expect new areas to announce the start up of the service.”
Lisa said: “We were so thrilled to have Shockat visit us, given his extensive professional experience in eye care and the platform he now has in parliament. He totally understands what we are trying to achieve, and his passionate advocacy for this service and wider eye care reforms for people with learning disabilities is invaluable.”
The government and NHS England announced in October 2024 that integrated care boards would begin to contract for the new NHS special schools eyecare service in 2025-26, according to a new specification and £12.7m of recurrent funding, intended to reach up to 165,000 children in special schools in England. This is part of a wider sensory checks programme for children by NHS England.