Peter Corbett, Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Pocklington Trust outlines plans to provide local support services in London.
"What are the most important things we should be doing to support people with sight loss?" That was one of the first questions I was asked when I was appointed CEO.
After consulting widely throughout the sector, we concluded that, a top priority is to develop local vision strategies so that the UK Vision Strategy aims and Seeing It My Way outcomes can be implemented where people live.
Our plan in developing these local strategies is to:
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ask local people what services are most needed.
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identify which of them are already available - and how good they are.
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form an action plan to bridge the gaps - and join up stakeholders to implement it.
We did some pilot work with Blind Independence Greenwich and charity for young blind people, RLSB, and found that a London-wide plan was required. Working under the auspices of the London Visual Impairment Forum (LVIF), we set ourselves a target to introduce a local vision strategy in every London borough by March 2014.
Collaboration between sight loss charities
The "Vision for London" will consult with local people, facilitate collaboration between sight loss charities and link with all key groups on the sight loss pathway, including users of services, health and social care professionals and voluntary groups.
Service provision in London is very fragmented across 32 boroughs, often leading to a postcode lottery. There are also gaps elsewhere in the country of course and we hope to be able to address these in part two of the project.
We are now at the implementation stage of the pilot and the key findings so far include:
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User-led peer support groups are an essential and effective way of providing services not supplied by the statutory sector, giving people more independence and increasing their social inclusion.
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Joined-up services across statutory and voluntary sectors are critical and good eye clinic liaison officers and rehabilitation services make a massive difference.
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Local people have a key role to play in shaping the health and wellbeing agenda for their area and in holding statutory providers to account.
More information
Article published in NB magazine in March 2013.