A ONE-OFF project checking the eyesight of children in Bradford special schools who had never been tested before has found a number of them to be partially sighted.

Bradford Learning Disability Eye Care Service used short-term clinical commissioning groups funding to carry out the tests on 199 children.

Despite children with learning disabilities being 28 times more likely to have eye problems than pupils in mainstream education, Bradford's Schools’ Vision Screening Programme is not established in special schools.

National charity SeeAbility has now called for the Government to make sight tests available in every special school in England after its research showed nearly four in ten pupils at special schools have no history of eye tests.

Out of the 199 children seen by the Bradford eyecare team, 42 of them had to be referred for further treatment and eight were identified as being sight impairment.

SeeAbility's chief executive David Scott-Ralphs welcomed the work carried out in Bradford but said it is still unacceptable there is no national plan to meet the eye care needs of children with disabilities.

He said: “On behalf of everyone at SeeAbility I’d like to congratulate Bradford on its work to reduce the inequalities faced by people with learning disabilities around their eye care and vision.

"Children in special schools are 28 times more likely to have a serious sight condition, yet least likely to access sight tests and follow up support.

"We are calling on the Government to make sight tests available in every special school in England. The 100,000 children who attend special schools, who have the most severe and profound disabilities, may not be able to tell someone they have a sight problem or get to a high street optician."

The team which carried out the special schools eyecare assessments in Bradford has won a prestigious national award for the treatment it provides to patients with learning difficulties.

Bradford Learning Disability Eye Care Service, which scooped Vision 2020 UK’s Astbury award for excellence, brings together experts from the hospital’s eye department, community health, the voluntary sector and education so that access to eye care for adults and children with learning difficulties can be co-ordinated and improved.

Its work has also included setting up eye assessments in homes of patients too fearful of going into a hospital or clinic for examination, patients needing surgery are also encouraged to visit the hospital ward the day before their operation, choose their own bed and meet their designated nurse. Other changes introduced by the service include patients being brought in to the operating theatre’s anaesthetic room through a back entrance and a familiar carer being in the recovery area so the patient hears a familiar voice when they wake.

A spokesman for Bradford City and Bradford Districts Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) said: “We’re very pleased to hear that this innovative scheme has received recognition for its eye care work with children and adults with special needs."