The Scottish Vision Services Steering Group

Members

Visibility Scotland, Sight Scotland, Rehabilitation Workers Professional Network (RWPN), Thomas Pocklington Trust, RNIB Scotland, Guide Dogs and the Sensory Hub – Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE).

SVSSG Background

The Scottish Vision Services Steering Group (SVSSG) is a consortium of organisations that formed in 2021 and successfully campaigned to reinstate the Low Vision Rehabilitation Course. Scotland does not have a formal educational path for vision specialists, which is negatively impacting the lives of people with vision impairment.

SVSSG Purpose

To convene a group of stakeholders from the Vision Impairment sector to focus on matters relating to the provision of rehabilitation in Scotland.

The scope of the group is to provide a forum that ensures oversight and delivery of the following objectives:

1. Reinstate the Graduate Low Vision Rehabilitation Course.
2. Create a suite of modular learning to expand and upskill the current workforce, provide yearly CPD and work towards a regulated profession.
3. Achieve regulation for the Vision Rehabilitation Specialist profession to match those of Allied Health Professionals.
4. Assess and scrutinise the financial sustainability of future Rehabilitation qualification and training courses, providing influence to ensure their continued viability.
5. Promotion of the wider ‘Right to Rehab’ through campaigning and awareness-raising.

Vision Rehabilitation Update

The Graduate Low Vision Rehabilitation course was reinstated in January 2023. This was only possible due to the funding sourced by SVSSG, provided by Thomas Pocklington Trust and the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE).

The funding enabled 50% reduction in the overall course cost; the 50% reduction filtered to each studentship.

Almost all of the cohort will graduate in early July 2024.

Professional Training

SVSSG is currently conducting a mapping exercise to better understand the roles and responsibilities of the community-based workforce operating in the sight loss sector and what training has been undertaken or available in the last 12 months.

SVSSG is committed to creating a sustainable course that caters for all the workforce training needs and funding, enabling a career pathway aligned with that of other Allied Health professionals such as occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and physiotherapists.

The overarching aim is to improve service provision and access for people living with vision impairment in Scotland.

Research

We anticipate that when the newly qualified rehabilitation specialists will collectively support around 1,425 vision-impaired people over the following 17 months.

All organisations that provide Rehabilitation and Habilitation in Scotland are invited to participate in this exciting piece of international research. The study consists of a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire, which includes the Impact of Low or Ultra-low Vision on Quality of Life and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale.  For children, the Impact of Vision Impairment on Children (IVI-C).

SVSSG, in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University and the Centre for Eye Research (CERA), through funding from the Thomas Pocklington Trust, will evaluate the data collected and publish the findings in early 2026.

This research will support service delivery and changes in the foreseeable future, ensuring we continue to evolve as a sector and service provider, that the voices of living experience are heard and that services are tailored to the needs of people and their families experiencing visual changes.