This page hosts a variety of quality standards which define what is expected of professionals working within the field of visual impairment.
These standards help improve quality in teaching and learning and the provision of services to children and young people with a visual impairment. They also support teaching, training and learning across the education sector.
In education
1. Quality standards for resource provisions for children and young people with visual impairment (2012)
This booklet sets out standards for the operation of resource provisions for children and young people with visual impairment in primary and secondary schools throughout England. The standards are intended for use as a self-assessment audit tool to support services and schools to contribute to the development, review and monitoring of resource provisions. This document is available to download below:
2. Guidance on Effective Working with Teaching Assistants in Schools - NatSIP (2012)
A NatSIP working group looking at the effective use of teaching assistants when supporting children and young people with sensory impairment, has produced a series of guidance documents for schools. You can download the guide for teaching assistants working with children with visual impairment below:
3. Promoting resilience and well being in Children and Young People with Sensory Impairment - NatSIP (2012)
Given the critical influence of resilience and well-being in personal and social development, learning and employment, it is important to consider how resilience and well-being can be promoted and the outcomes of intervention demonstrated in any planning process for CYP with SI, including Education, Health and Care Plans.
This guidance has been developed by a NatSIP working group of specialists in hearing, vision and multi-sensory impairment. It builds upon and complements an earlier NatSIP (2010) document entitled: 'Promoting Emotional Resilience'. This document is available to download below:
4. Public Sector Equality Duty guidance for schools in England - Equality and Human Rights Commision (2012)
On 6 April 2012 schools were required to publish information showing how they comply with the new equality duty and setting equality objectives. They will need to update the published information at least annually and publish objectives at least once every four years.This guide will support schools in meeting the equality duty.
The focus of this guide is on the practical implementation of the equality duty in schools. It supplements the DfE Guidance on the Equality Act 2010 with practical case studies of how the equality duty can be applied in contexts which will be familiar to teachers. Visit the EHRC website or download a copy of this guidance below:
5. Reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils - Auxiliary Aids Technical Guidance - Equality and Human Rights Commision (2012)
Schools and education authorities have had a duty to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils since 2002 (originally under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (the DDA) and, from October 2010, under the Equality Act 2010). This guide will help school leaders and education authorities understand and comply with the reasonable adjustments duty. It will also help disabled pupils and their parents understand the duty.
From 1 September 2012 the reasonable adjustments duty for schools and education authorities includes a duty to provide auxiliary aids and services for disabled pupils. The decision to commence this duty was taken by the Department for Education after a public consultation, with a positive response to its introduction without additional regulation from the majority of respondents. This guide will help to explain how the requirement to include auxiliary aids and services in the reasonable adjustments duty will work in schools and education authorities. Visit the EHRC website or download a copy of this guidance below:
For further information and to download Equality Act guidance visit the Equality and Human Rights Commision (EHRC) Website.
These standards illustrate good practice in the provision of SEN support and outreach services and are intended to help guide the development of local provision and support, leading to improved outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
The QTS standards give providers of initial teacher training increased flexibility in the way they design their programmes, and encourages the use of professional judgement in the assessment of trainees against them.
These standards relate to the specialist support provided to children and young people with visual impairment and are intended to help secure consistent, high quality provision. The standards are not mandatory but rather are designed to serve as markers for local education authorities when reviewing their service provision.
The Education (School Teachers' Qualifications, England) Regulations 2003 stipulate that, in addition to holding qualified teacher status (QTS), a person employed at a school as a teacher of a class of pupils with a hearing, visual or multi-sensory impairment, must have an approved mandatory qualification (MQ). It is strongly recommended that teachers working in a peripatetic capacity also hold the MQ.
These quality standards offer guidance on the provision of educational services for children and young people with sensory impairment. By publishing these quality standards, local education authorities now have guidance on what is expected within their service delivery to make sure they are achieving the best possible practice.
This document is written for professionals and explains how to ensure deafblind children and young people access education through high quality support.
The provision map has been designed to inform local authority decision-making in commissioning sensory impaired provision/services from both the maintained and the independent and non-maintained special school sectors.
These planning documents are designed to help services determine support levels required for children with visual impairment.
14. Suggested criteria for determining QTVI input
This RNIB document was designed to assist services in establishing appropriate levels of QTVI input for children with differing levels of visual impairment and is available to download below.
Suggest we should move this to the stat reqts and guidance section
This document clarifies the responsibilities of local authorities and the SEN Improvement Test (para 20 onwards) lists helpful questions which should be asked in any reorganisation of SEN provision.
RNIB has produced a range of position statements on key aspects of provision which may be quoted in support of other arguments and evidence.
In vision care
Sense and the National Deaf Children's Society have developed these guidelines which are aimed at those who have a duty of care for deaf children. The guidelines draw attention to the need for vision care for children born deaf, discussing specific issues and offering best practice advice.
This document summarises the views of the Paediatric Subcommittee of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists regarding best practice and minimum standards in relation to health services for children with ophthalmic disorders. Ophthalmic disorders, as defined here, include eye disease, disorders of cerebral function affecting vision, and visual impairment.
There are a variety of reasons for wanting to know how well a clinical service is working, from regulatory bodies seeking evidence to inform commisioning to departmental development or as part of inspection criteria.
A simple and inexpensive way of measuring the quality of a clinical service is to use a self-assessment questionnaire. The RCO's Quality Standards Group has produced a suite of simple self-assessment tools for a number of clinical services including paediatric services.
Download the latest information by visiting www.rcophth.ac.uk and select 'For the profession' and 'Quality standards'.
In mobility
1. Quality standards in the delivery of habilitation training (mobility and independent living skills) for children and young people with visual impairment.
These quality standards are designed to make sure children and young people with visual impairment are enabled, through high quality mobility and independence training and support, to achieve the greatest possible independence and maximise their educational outcomes and life chances. They are an outcome of the Mobility 21 Project funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in England.
Working with families
This document sets out a Charter for families of young children with vision impairments. It contains information on the development of the Charter, its underlying principles, and the rights of parents and families.