VISION 2020 UK Astbury Award 2016 Shortlist

The College of Optometrists: PrOVIDe, the Prevalence of Visual Impairment in the Dementia population

(an NIHR funded project)

PrOVIDe combined a myriad of organisations to investigate the prevalence of visual impairment in people with dementia and potential barriers to eye care. It was characterised by collaboration from start to finish. A Steering Group was created before the start of the project that included optometric, ophthalmological, neurological and statistical expertise, and a former dementia carer
Nominee: Michael Bowen, Director of Research

Pan Disability Taxi Training for Warwick District Council and Stratford on Avon. Guide Dogs and QAC

Guide Dogs and Queen Alexandra College in Birmingham have worked together to create a partnership to ensure that all taxi drivers are Pan Disability trained.The training involves practical exercises, sighted guide training in and out of cars, and training to Guide Dogs My Guide Level One standard.
Nominee: Graham Kensett, Guide Dogs, Head of Mobility Services

London Vision Strategy Programme (LVS Programme). Thomas Pocklington Trust

In 2012, TPT launched an ambitious project to deliver Vision Strategies across all 32 London boroughs to benefit people with sight loss and promote the importance of eye health and prevention.
TPT’s LVS Programme has been hugely successful, through partnership working, embedding eye health and sight loss issues into local policy and improving opportunities for people with sight loss. We are now developing London Vision – a vehicle for greater pan-London collaboration - to lead the next phases of this work.
Nominee: Cathy Low, Projects Director – London

Royal College of Ophthalmologists ‘Quality standard for people with sight loss and dementia in an ophthalmology department’

The Quality Standard for people with sight loss and dementia in an ophthalmology department had been developed and was ratified by The Royal College of Ophthalmologists and VISION 2020 UK to help ophthalmology departments provide high quality care for patients with dementia.
The quality standard goes on to identify simple and easy steps that can be taken to enable services to be designed and adapted to meet the needs of people with dementia.
Nominee: Mr Paul Ursell, Royal College of Ophthalmologist

10 Principles of Good Practice in vision rehabilitation as part of the See, Plan and Provide campaign. RNIB, RWPN and VISION 2020 UK Low Vision and Rehabilitation Committee

As part of the Early Intervention and Rehabilitation Project funded by the Department of Health and a key campaigning area for RNIB, our ambition is to raise the standard of vision rehabilitation across England.
The campaign is initially working with 10 local authorities in England to ensure they have the right resources so that blind and partially sighted people receive the right assessment at the right time so they are able to receive timely vision rehabilitation support. RNIB's 'See, plan and provide' report and the 10 principles are vital tools to help us to achieve this goal.
Nominees: RNIB: Feehan, Simmone Miller and Tara Chattaway, RWPN and the VISION 2020 UK Low Vision and Rehabilitation Committee.
'A Vision for Learning' RNIB and Hansel Alliance. RNIB Scotland.
A Vision for Learning is a collaborative working project between RNIB and Hansel Alliance, who provide adult social care services for people with learning disabilities throughout the Ayrshire area. This is to ensure staff at Hansel has increased awareness and knowledge in the area of sight loss and how sight loss could have an impact on the adults with learning disabilities who they are supporting.
The evaluations showed there was a significant increase in staff's awareness of eye conditions in relation to people with learning disabilities
Nominee: Linzi Sansum, UK Training and Development Officer, RNIB UK Practice and Development Team.

UK Practice and Development Team (UKPDT) who work throughout the UK to support with the development of integrated eye care pathways for people with complex needs. UK Practice and Development Team (RNIB)

Partnership working including: Collaboration with NHS Education Scotland (NES) creating a professional development resource for Optometrists and Practice Teams around Assessments for people with Learning Disabilities and Autism.
Nominees: UK Practice and Development Team (RNIB), Iain Kennedy, June Neil, Linzi Sansum, Joanne Dick, Gail Ivory, Anne-Marie Boyd, Kerry Garrigan.

‘Sight Loss – What we needed to know’ RNIB, Blind Veterans UK, Visionary, Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, The Royal College of Ophthalmologists, VISION 2020 UK, Association of Directors of Adult Services.

The booklet provides information that people with sight loss felt would have helped them when they were losing their sight. Throughout, there are quotes about people’s experiences and their top ten tips for coping with sight loss.
The biggest strength of this project was that it was co-produced with people with sight loss. It provides information that people with sight loss felt would have helped them when they were losing their sight.
Nominee: Mark Godfrey and large team of people with sight loss, partners/carers and representatives from member organisations.

London Employment Programme Pilot ‘Works For Me.’ Thomas Pocklington Trust (TPT)

‘Works For Me’ supports people with sight loss to gain and retain paid employment. Collaboration with businesses, charities and individual professionals gave the programme access to resources far beyond its own capacity including event space, expertise, volunteering hours, professional networks and peer support all of which contributed to some staggering employment outcomes.
TPT is working with membership organisation, Visionary, to use the learnings from the report to support others in the sector to implement lessons learned about collaborative working and to persuade those delivering government contracts with poorer outcomes for people with sight loss such as Work Programme to rethink their own models of support.
Nominees: Thomas Pocklington Trust Employment Team: Alexa Sage – Employment Development Manager, Martin Sigsworth – Employment Project Coordinator, Charlie Coyle – Graduate Intern.

Visual Impairment Awareness Training (VIAT) Christopher Grange Visual Rehabilitation Centre. Visionary.

Christopher Grange Visual Rehabilitation Centre has taken Visual Impairment Awareness Training (VIAT) to a different level. We are now in a position to offer either VIAT face to face – with bespoke courses tailored to suit the employer or offer the individual or organisations the opportunity to access the UK’s First Distance Learning On-Line Visual Impairment Awareness Training Course.
We achieved this by working in collaboration with Visionary and NCC Resources, a national training provider. This collaboration enabled us, as a small charity located in Merseyside, to have UK wide representation for the benefit of every person with sight loss.
Nominees: Mike Bailey/Manager, Annette Silker, Wendy Booth, Steve Challoner.

Wayfindr (Joint Venture between Royal London Society for Blind People and ustwo)

In March 2014 the RLSB Youth Forum published their Youth Manifesto, identifying priority areas for vision impaired young people – and one of these sparked Wayfindr’s development. Wayfindr is the result of a productive collaboration between (global digital product design studio) ustwo, and the RLSB Youth Forum. This joint venture began as part of ustwo’s Invent Time (Social R&D) programme. In response to the manifesto, ustwo worked with members of the RLSB Youth Forum to investigate ways to make independent travel accessible, and cost-effective.
Ustwo and RLSB initially believed that the best solution to this would be an app, but after investigating further they realised that the best way to realise their vision would be to create an Open Standard for audio based wayfinding. It was at this point that they created the company Wayfindr.
Nominees: Katherine Payne, Wayfindr, Florence Orban, RLSB

West Midlands Local Eye Health Network (LEHN) for their work with West Midlands Quality Review Service (WMQRS) on ‘Eyecare Patient Pathway Quality Standards'

WMQRS is collaborative venture helping NHS organisations across the West Midlands improve quality. They have a programme of work across a range of services and develop quality standards based on evidence of best practice and clinical effectiveness which can be used for self-assessment and peer review.
This work illustrates good practice for LEHN’s as a benchmark, and demonstrates effective collaboration across the eye health and sight loss sector through the offices of the West Midlands LEHN working in a series of mutli-disciplinary groups.
Nominees: West Midlands Local Eye Health Network (LEHN) led by Claire Roberts (Chair).

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