The lives of thousands of blind and partially sighted people are being put at risk by delays in vital care that they have a legal right to after being assessed as visually impaired, according to a report.
More than a quarter of English councils are leaving people who have just been diagnosed as blind waiting more than a year for vision rehabilitation assessments and potentially life-saving support, the report by the RNIB revealed.
It cited the example of one person who died while waiting for council help. The Guardian can reveal that the case involved a woman from Church Stretton in Shropshire who had been waiting 18 months for an assessment when she tripped on a pothole and died later from head injuries. She had been trying to teach herself how to use a white cane, without any support or training, despite getting a certificate of visual impairment.
Shropshire was one of the councils that admitted to the RNIB that recently diagnosed blind people had to wait more than a year for an assessment and care.
Councils are obliged to provide such help for those coping with a recent visual impairment under the 2014 Care Act. The support involves helping people cope practically and mentally with visual impairment at a critical time after a diagnosis.
The social care ombudsman recommends that councils should provide these services within 28 days of someone receiving a certificate of visual impairment.
But the RNIB report, which is based on freedom of information requests to councils in England, found that 86% were missing this 28-day deadline. The report, Out of Sight – The Hidden Scandal of Vision Rehabilitation, which was shared exclusively with the Guardian, warned that the delays uncovered in the figures were dangerous.
From the 80 councils that provided figures, it was revealed that more than 2,000 people in 2022 had to wait more than six months for support.
The RNIB estimated that at least 115,000 blind and visually impaired people are left without any support in their lifetimes, based on a separate survey of 423 people last year.
The new report said: “RNIB has heard directly from many blind and partially sighted people who have experienced wait times far beyond what is safe or expected, but to find at least 2,025 people were left waiting for more than six months to receive a vision rehabilitation assessment is shocking.”
It concluded that blind and partially sighted people were being failed by cash-strapped councils in part because their care was not regulated, unlike other forms of adult social care, despite the risks involved.
It said: “Our research has shown how – when a structured programme of vision rehabilitation support is not implemented in time – blind and partially sighted people face an increased risk of harm. This is happening too often and putting lives at risk.”
It called for such services to be monitored by the Care Quality Commission. “Without national oversight, there is no accountability of services provided,” the report said.
Vivienne Francis, the RNIB’s chief social change officer, said: “We know that local authorities in England are struggling to cope with the rise in demand for vision rehabilitation services, and to resource the service effectively. However, threadbare services mean that thousands of blind and partially sighted people wait often more than 12 months without the support they’re entitled to so they can live their lives to the full.
“This hidden social care injustice needs to be fixed. We’re calling on all UK political parties to commit to ensuring people with sight loss get the emotional and practical support they need, when they need it.”
Natalie Holford, 60, from Tamworth said it took a near miss in a potential traffic accident before she got support after Marfan’s syndrome led her to being registered severely sight impaired in April 2019.
She said: “I nearly got run over. This would be about six months [after receiving a diagnosis]. I’m in tears. I phoned up the social services and said: ‘You know, I really do need whatever it is that support is supposed to happen at this point.’
She was then given “very good” vision rehabilitation support by Birmingham council. It included white cane training, which she said gave her the “balance and confidence” she needed to get about.
She said: “I had worried initially about looking vulnerable because of the white cane but actually I’ve always felt rather more empowered that people will come and ask if I need any help. Now, I don’t go out of the house without the cane.”
Terry Quinn 59, from Baildon in West Yorkshire, said he was “in despair” after being registered as severely sight impaired in 2019 as a result of diabetic retinopathy. He had to give up his health treatments business and said he “would spend days and weeks in the house by myself, not daring to go out”.
The four months he spent waiting for support from Bradford council were the toughest. “I have never felt so alone in my entire life,” he said. He only got support when a low vision clinic suggested he call the council. “That one call led me to living the best blind life ever,” he said.
The support helped him “think more positively” and led him to “pluck up the courage” to get a guide dog, Quinn said.
