Educational Provision for Blind and Partially Sighted Children and Young People in Scotland

Educational provision for blind and partially sighted children and young people in Scotland: 2007

Final Report

Marian Morris

Paula Smith

July 2008

Project Code VISZ

© National Foundation for Educational Research 2006

Registered Charity No. 313392

Contents

1.Introduction

1.1Methodology

1.2The report

2.Children and young people with visual impairments

2.1Numbers of children and young people with visual impairment

2.2Ethnicity

2.3Visual impairment and additional disabilities

2.4Educational settings in compulsory education for children and

young people with visual impairments

2.5Educational settings in post-16 education for children and

young people with visual impairments

2.6Use of different literacy formats

2.7In summary

3.Structure and responsibilities of VI service

3.1Management, organisation and funding

3.3Provision of support

3.4Monitoring and evaluation

3.5Annual reviews

3.6Summary

4.Staffing and training in VI services

4.1Staffing levels and deployment

4.2Staff qualifications and training

4.3In summary

5.VI service provision

5.1Children under five years

5.2Mobility education

5.3In summary

6.Conclusions37

Appendix39

1. Introduction

In 2003, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) estimated thatthere were 23,680 children and young people known to Visual Impairment Services acrossEngland, Scotland and Wales (Keil and Clunies-Ross, 2003). More recently, they estimated that, based on data from the same survey, over 8,900 pupils in England in compulsory education, without other disabilities, had a visual impairment: data from the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) suggests the figure is lower, around 7,760 (this only includes primary SEN). Ascertaining the exact number of children and young people is complex: registration of visual difficulties is not compulsory and, while data on PLASC relates to primary and secondary disabilities, it may not be recorded for those for whom it is not their main disability.

In 2007,RNIB commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to carry out an online survey of local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales; this was the fourth in a series of studies (previously undertaken by RNIB themselves). The study aimed to:

• ascertain the numbers and characteristics of children and young people with visual impairments (and other disabilities) within local authorities across the three countries
• identify and map the type of educational and other provision made for such children and young people
• explore how and to what extent such provision is supported (both professionally and through ongoing training for staff).

This report presents the data received from the Scottish Visual Impairment services, with some data from Great Britain as a whole, where this provides useful comparative information.

1.1Methodology

The questionnaire was initially developed at RNIB, drawing on questions used in previous surveys conducted in 1995 (Clunies-Ross, 1997), 1997 (Clunies-Ross, Franklin and Keil, 1999) and 2002 (Keil and Clunies-Ross, 2003). The 2007 version was developed with guidance from a steering group comprised of members from various stakeholder groups, including representatives from RNIB national children’s services team, the national group representing teachers of pupils with visual impairment (VIEW), the South East Regional SEN Partnership (SERSEN) and the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (BATOD). The NFER research team were involved in refining some of the questions and in setting up the online survey, with different versions to take account of the differences in visual impairment services (VI services) in England, Scotland and Wales. The questionnaire was piloted and trialled by three Heads of VI services and members of the steering group. The final versions of the questionnaires were made available in paper format for each country, with a Welsh language version for those local VI servicesin Walesthat requested them. In addition, a supplementary questionnaire was designed for those local authorities where VI services had been outsourced to schools. In such cases, VI services were asked to send their resourced school(s) a questionnaire in order to collect the relevant information to be collated by the service.

In order to assist with the administration of the questionnaire, RNIB identified the relevant contact staff at each of the VI services in England, Scotland and Wales and these 176 people were included on the database (130 in England, where some consortia arrangements were in place, 17 in Walesand 29 in Scotland – the contact details of one Scottish authority were unavailable). The NFER sent an introductory email to each of the contacts several weeks before the live survey date. The email introduced VI services to the survey and outlined its aims and objectives.

In addition, the VI service in each authority also received an information sheet and a glossary of the terms used in the questionnaire. The information sheet provided an overview and guidance about the type of information that services would be asked to provide during the survey. The provision of this information sheet was intended to enable local VI services to begin to gather the relevant information prior to receipt of the survey.

In early December, 2007, each listed VI service was emailed a hyperlink to the online survey and assigned a unique ID, in order to enable them to access the survey. VI services were also made aware that a paper version of the questionnaire could be sent to them on request. The online survey was designed to allow individual respondents to access the survey on more than one occasion and to facilitate review of previous sections. The complexity of the questionnaire, and the need to provide a significant amount of numeric data, however, meant that respondents often had difficulties in completing sections of the survey. In order to assist the process, and to improve the low initial response rate (despite a comprehensive reminder strategy and an extension of the survey deadline), the NFER responded to helpful feedback from VI services by providing both a document outlining Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and, for a number of VI services who had started but not completed the survey, over-printed versions of their filled in survey to date so that they could finish the survey on paper for subsequent scanning at NFER.

The online survey was ‘live’ during December 2007 and January 2008. The final response rates to the survey are provided in Table 1.

Table 1 Survey response rate

Country / Number of authorities / Response total / Response rate
%
England / 130 / 100 / 77
Scotland / 29 / 17 / 61
Wales / 17 / 14 / 82
Total / 176 / 131 / 74

The responses that were received were predominantly from either Heads of VI services or VI team leaders within a generic ASN or sensory service; two VI services in each case. A further response was received from a Head of a sensory service in one authority. Seven VI services in Scotland did not answer this question. (Table 2 in Appendix)

1.2The report

The report is structured to provide an overview of the numbers and characteristics of children and young people in Scotland with a visual impairment (Chapter 2) alongside an evaluation of the relationship between these characteristics and the pattern of educational settings for pupils and students. Chapter 3 provides an insight into the structure of the VI services, followed by an assessment of staffing levels and training across the services in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 examines the support structures and the mobility provision that is being made for children and young people and any barriers to extending this provision.

It should be noted that, although responses were received from 17 VI services in Scotland, not all of the services were able to provide all of the data that the survey set out to capture. The analyses that have been undertaken by NFER reflect the extent to which the data can be regarded as reliable and robust. In some cases (such as the data on children and young people without a formal diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder – ASD) the NFER research team feel that the data is not robust enough for further analysis. In cases where comparative basic frequency analyses were needed, all 17 respondents were included. In other cases, and most particularly in those cases where numeric data was requested, the analysis was undertaken only on those VI services from whom complete data was received, or where it was logical, sensible and statistically valid to re-code missing values to zero.

1

2.Children and young people with visual impairments

A significant concern of RNIB is to establish a good estimate of the number of children and young people with some form of visual impairment in Great Britain

In Scotland, in 2005 (the latest date for which statistics have been published), some 444 children from birth to age 16 were registered with their local authority as blind, with a further 445 registered as partially sighted.[1] It should be noted, however, that registration is not compulsory and that research studies suggest that only a small proportion (between one-quarter and one-third of visually impaired people) are in fact registered with their local authorities.[2]

One aim of the current survey, therefore, was to obtain a clearer insight into the numbers of children and young people with whom VI services in England, Scotland and Wales had contact and for whom they provided services. In total, 12 of the 17VI services in Scotland that responded to the questionnaire supplied information on the children and young people (aged from under 5 to 16) for whom they provided education services, whether within their authority (12) or through hosting institutions (schools, special schools, hospital schools) in other authorities (ten). The aggregated data indicated that, across the reporting VI services, a total of 674 children and young people are known to have visual impairments (see Table 3).

2.1Numbers of children and young people with visual impairment

Even so, within the VI services in Scotland that returned a questionnaire, the numbers of children and young people with a visual impairment may be marginally higher than presented here. As one respondent emphasised, caseloads did not include those under assessment (‘…there are a number of pupils in non VI special schools who have been identified as having some level of visual difficulty - who have not yet been put onto VI caseload as they have not been fully assessed’). The figure of 674 may be a conservative estimate, therefore.

Table 3Children and young people with visual impairment: Scottish reporting VI services only

Number of children and young people / Under 5 years / 5 to 11
Years / 12 to 16 years / Total
Educated within local authorities / 102 / 280 / 273 / 655
Educated outside local authorities / 0 / 6 / 13 / 19
Total number of young people with VI / 102 / 286 / 286 / 674

Numeric data – within authority data from 12 authorities

Numeric data – outside authority data from 10 authorities

Source: RNIB/NFER Survey of Educational Provision. England, Scotland and Wales 2008

The data obtained from the survey for 74 per cent of the VI services in England, Scotland and Wales, represented 34 per cent of the children and young people educated in Scotland.

From this data (albeit with some caveats), it is possible to extrapolate the cross-national figure for children and young people with visual impairments, using estimates based on the mid-year Census for 2006.[3] The extrapolation suggests that the total number of children and young people (up to age 16 and within the educational system in Scotland) who may have such visual impairments may be 2,071. (Table 4)

The extrapolated figures for children and young people, aged up to 16, with visual impairments inScotland(2,071) are markedly higher than the figures for those registered blind or partially sighted (889), reflecting concerns that levels of registration do not reflect the extent of visual problems.

Table 4Children and young people with visual impairment (national figure extrapolated from reporting VI services)

Number of children and young people / Under 5 years / 5-11
years / 12 to 16 years / Total
Educated within local authorities / 300 / 821 / 803 / 1925
Educated outside local authorities / 0 / 51 / 95 / 146
Total number of young people with VI / 300 / 872 / 899 / 2071

Numeric data – national figure extrapolated from 12 authorities reporting within authority data

Numeric data – national figure extrapolated from 10 authorities reporting outside authority data

Source: RNIB/NFER Survey of Educational Provision. England, Scotland and Wales 2008

2.2Ethnicity

Just two of the respondents reported that their service kept a record of the ethnicity of children and young people with a visual impairment; eight, by contrast, said that this was not routinely recorded. This was partly because either the collection or the collation of such data was said to be the specific responsibility of other agencies within the authority; all Scottish authorities record it during the annual School Census. Partly, however, it was because systems to record the data were not part of the working practice in the VI service.

In the two services that provided an indication of the ethnic profile of their children and young people, 47 of the children and young people were reported as of White British origin and one was reported as of Pakistani heritage (ethnicity data is summarised in Table 5b in the Appendix).

2.3Visual impairment and additional disabilities

Respondents indicated that 206 children and young people had some form of additional disability and/or ASN, or were recorded as multi-disabled, visually impaired (MDVI). (Table 6 in Appendix). This estimate of additional disability (31 per cent of the 674 children and young people who were reported as having some form of visual impairment) may be an underestimate of the actual level of disability across the reporting VI services, however, since respondents did not provide any information on the disability status of a further 265 children and young people (that is, around 39 per cent of the total of 674).

Across the sub-set of VI services (five) that responded to a question about children and young people with Additional Support Needs (ASN), a total of 30pupils (43 per cent of the 69 pupils for whom the respondents provided data) were said to have a record of need. (Table 7 in Appendix). A further three young people were reported as undergoing professional assessment. As might be expected, the relative proportions of these increased by age group, with more with a record of need recorded in the older cohorts. When compared with the percentages calculated in previous years, the proportions in each age group are different to those identified in 1997 and 2002 across Great Britain, with a higher proportion of children in the under five age group noted as having ASN.

Table 4Children and young people with a Statement/Record of Need since 1997

Age group / Great Britain / Scotland
1997
% / 2002
% / 2008
% / 2008
%
Under 5 years / 20 / 19 / 22 / 45
5 to 11 years / 57 / 58 / 56 / 30
12 to 16 years / 67 / 69 / 68 / 51
Total / 12,037 / 10,906 / 6,692 / 69
N of LAs / 55 / 98 / 65 / 5

Source: Clunies-Ross, Franklin and Keil, 1999; Keil and Clunies-Ross, 2003; RNIB/NFER Survey of Educational Provision: England, Scotland and Wales, 2008

Whether or not a record of need (this has now been replaced by the Co-ordinated Support Plan) is allocated varies across VI services, however. In some VI services, visual impairment is recorded as the primary (and sometimes sole) disability of those with a statement of ASN. In others, the existence of a visual impairment is not seen as grounds for the provision of a statement.

Few VI services reported children or young people with a formal diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (Table 8 in Appendix). Of the nine VI services who completed this question, only seven said that they had any such pupils (a total of 11 children and young people aged from under five to 16 were identified). On average, across these seven VI services, approximately one in 40 pupils with a visual impairment were said to have a diagnosis of ASD (that is, around 2.5 per cent of all those with a visual impairment). Others, however, indicated that they had some children and young people who had not yet been given a formal diagnosis of ASD, though the total numbers have proved difficult to assess.[4] It is likely, therefore, that overall numbers of pupils with a visual impairment, who are also on the ASD spectrum, are higher.

Most of the children and young people recorded as having a formal diagnosis of ASD were said to be educated within their home authority, although the relative proportions varied according to age (see Table 8 in Appendix). While six out of seven of the children aged five to 11 were reported as being educated locally, all of the four children and young people in the 12 to 16 age group were educated in their home authority.

2.4Educational settings in compulsory education for children and young people with visual impairments

Most children and young people with visual impairments appear to be educated within their home authority (Table 9a in Appendix). On the basis of the survey data, only three per cent, in total, are educated in neighbouring or other authorities (though this proportion may be as high as 7 per cent of all visually impaired children and young people across Scotland drawing on information from the extrapolated national data). The pattern of out-of-authority education seems to vary according to the extent of young people’s disabilities, as shown in Tables 9b and 9c in Appendix.[5]

Half (50 per cent) of the young people about whom respondents provided information on educational location had no additional disabilities and/or ASN and most of these (88per cent) were educated within their home authority. Of those reported as being educated outside their home authority, over half (59 per cent) had additional disabilities and/or ASN,[6] or were recorded as multi-disabled, visually impaired (MDVI).

Pupils aged 12 to 16 made up 44 per cent of the children and young people with additional disabilities who were said to be educated out of the authority. Data from the VI services suggests that the proportion of out-of-authority pupils in compulsory education who had no additional disabilities did not vary much by age. Twelve out of 27 of 12-16 year olds educated out of the authority had no additional disability, compared with 12 out of 26 five to 11 year olds (see Table 9cin Appendix).

Some of the VI services in the smaller local authorities said that they made no specific provision for the education of visually impaired children and young people, buying in services from other local authorities (or RNIB) on a needs basis.Others suggested that placement in a special school would only take place, at present, if the child or young person had educational needs beyond a visual impairment.