Abstract
Educational support for children with visual impairments (VIs) at school relies on effective information-sharing between hospital eye services and schools. There may be delays in this process which impede school staff’s efforts to help affected children. As part of a programme of work aiming to improve outcomes for children with cerebral visual impairments (CVIs), this study carried out qualitative interviews to understand the views of primary school staff about receiving and using external specialist advice in general. These data can be used to inform and improve information-sharing aimed at supporting children in primary school who have VI. Views of primary school teachers and staff with responsibility for supporting children with additional needs were elicited in nine interviews, across three mainstream primary school settings in Gloucestershire, UK. Interviews were carried out in October 2017. Participants were asked about their experiences of working with children with additional needs and engaging with outside specialist providers. Thematic analysis was used to look for patterns in the data. Interviews revealed four major themes: understanding the condition (including training, individual differences, and understanding the aim of the strategy); translating reports into action (including adaptations to recommendations, team working, and communication formats); follow-up (including feedback and measuring progress); and barriers and opportunities for accessing support (including systematic barriers, going private, and ideal scenarios). This small study provides insights into how teachers and school staff perceive the relationship with external specialists. Services for children with VI in primary schools may be enhanced if they provide information about the impact of VI; about the underlying conditions if known, training and awareness activities for staff and offer a route for follow-up or enquiries. These insights can be used to inform service design and policy.
Highlights
In the United Kingdom, the Children and Families Act 2014 changed how support for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) should be assessed and provided for, emphasising their functional needs as well as their medical diagnoses (Castro & Palikara, 2016)
The level of support to be provided for a child is specified and the provision of that support is dependent on the activities of teachers and learning support assistants (LSAs) in school and/or qualified teachers of the visually impaired (QTVIs)
Analysis of the interviews led to the emergence of four major themes including understanding the condition, translating reports into action, follow-up and barriers, and opportunities for accessing support for children
Summary
In the United Kingdom, the Children and Families Act 2014 changed how support for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) should be assessed and provided for, emphasising their functional needs as well as their medical diagnoses (Castro & Palikara, 2016). School budgets include a proportion intended for this in-house support for SEND pupils; this is not ring-fenced. If schools apply for top-up funding or for an EHCP for a child with vision problems, the LA requests reports from relevant professionals, including paediatric specialists such as ophthalmologists, optometrists, and orthoptists, who are required to contribute details of a child’s visual impairments (VIs) and the practical implications of these impairments. To help the children being supported by within-school resources, the schools may themselves request assessments from specialists such as educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, or QTVIs, as needed. These may be funded by the LA or be private practitioners
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