RNIB extremely disappointed at NICE response

Central to this was our ask for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to create quality guidelines for the provision of effective vision rehabilitation, which would allow for the regulation of services, in line with other areas of adult social care.

We have recently received a disappointing update from NICE that the NICE prioritisation board has decided not to prioritise vision rehabilitation for guidance development. They say more evidence needs to be collected for the board to reconsider this decision.

In their response to us, NICE say:

“The rationale was that the prioritisation board considered that it is unclear what value NICE guidance will add to this topic as the issues with variation in delivery and access to vision rehabilitation services is a commissioning problem. Furthermore, the evidence base is likely to be too limited to develop robust evidence-based NICE guidance.

We do understand this may be disappointing, but NICE has to prioritise areas of guidance development and delivery that will have greatest impact on the health and care system. This will ensure that we produce guidance that is relevant, timely, accessible, and has demonstrable impact.”

This is extremely disappointing news to us. Currently, there is no set universal standard of what good vision rehabilitation should look like, which is reflected in the variable experiences of blind and partially sighted people of this service.

Although the 2014 Care Act makes the provision of vision rehabilitation a statutory duty as part of wider rehabilitation services, rules around quality standards, and legislation around regulation and data collection, have not kept pace.

Clear, defined standards would enable both local and national oversight of vision rehabilitation performance, which would be a step towards ending the current postcode lottery of support across England.

RNIB will continue to call for the creation of quality standards for vision rehabilitation, as this remains the best mechanism to provide clarity about what skills and support should be provided through vision rehabilitation, to ensure blind and partially sighted people are equipped with a comprehensive set of skills for independent living.

We acknowledge NICE’s point about the lack of evidence on what “good” vision rehabilitation services look like – for too long this area of work has been under-researched, which is something RNIB is proactively looking to change.

We are keen to collaborate with partner organisations to help pull more evidence together. We will not give up on this issue.

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