What challenges do people with sight loss face accessing vision rehabilitation services in Birmingham?

Our new report What challenges do people with sight loss face accessing vision rehabilitation services in Birmingham? examined the experiences of individuals who had accessed vision rehabilitation services provided by Birmingham City Council. We found a number of issues affecting the support people received, including:

• Long waiting times and delays in contact by the service
• Lack of information about accessing support
• Variations in the quality of assessments and support

In response, Birmingham City Council has committed to making a series of improvements to vision rehabilitation services, including:

• Improved information, advice and guidance (IAG)
• Sight loss training for council call centre staff
• Closer collaboration with third sector organisations supporting people with sight loss

We will publish a follow-up report in six months to assess the changes made and the impact of our recommendations. For further information please contact Chipiliro Kalebe-Nyamongo, Research and Policy Manager on ChipiliroK@healthwatchbirmingham.co.uk 

We are grateful to the third sector organisations in Birmingham that helped us to gather feedback from the people they support. Key to our study were Focus Birmingham, RNIB, Thomas Pocklington Trust Birmingham, and the Macular Society. We also received support from New Outlook, Birmingham Guide Dogs, Queen Alexandra College and Sense. We would also like to thank Birmingham City Council’s vision rehabilitation team for their support.