Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the rollout of the NHS special schools eye care service will begin; and what his planned timeline is to offer this to all special schools in England.

NHS England published a range of documents to support the commissioning of sight testing in special educational settings on 25 March 2025, and integrated care boards will now be in the process of planning to procure local services. The scale of the roll out will be dependent on educational establishments choosing to host a service.

There are currently 22 proof-of-concept contractors continuing to deliver the sight testing and dispensing service in 83 day and residential special schools. Data on the number of practitioners delivering the National Health Service special schools eye care service within those contracts is not held centrally.