Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the fee per child to deliver the Special Schools Eyecare service.

NHS England has committed to investing up to £12.7 million annually from 2024/25 on the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximately 87% increase compared to previous levels of spending. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%.

NHS England has engaged with key stakeholders throughout the life of the programme and continues to work closely with local integrated care boards and the ophthalmic and voluntary sector, to scale up and roll out sight tests in special educational settings.