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Registered Blind and Partially Sighted People, England 2016-17
National statistics- Publication Date:
- 7 Dec 2017
- Geographic Coverage:
- England
- Geographical Granularity:
- Local Authorities, Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs), Country, Regions
- Date Range:
- 01 Apr 2016 to 31 Mar 2017
Summary
This publication contains detailed statistics on adults and children registered, with councils with social services responsibilities in England, as being blind or partially sighted. The data are compiled from the triennial SSDA 902 return submitted by Local Authorities to NHS Digital.
People that have a Certificate of Vision Impairment from an ophthalmologist choose whether or not to be included in their Local Authority's register of blind or partially sighted people; registration is not automatic. Those that register become eligible for certain concessions. This means that not everybody that has been certified as having a vision impairment is recorded on a Local Authority register. In addition, some Local Authorities have informed us that there are difficulties in providing some elements of these data. For these reasons the data in this publication cannot be considered as definitive numbers of blind and partially sighted people.
Highlights
•There were 20,605 new registrations in 2016-17, or 56 new registrations per day.
•This has decreased slightly, from 58 a day (21,095 new registrations) in 2013-14, however there were increases in the 5-17 and 65-74 age bands.
•As at 31st March 2017, there were 290,475 registrations overall. This equates to five registrations per 1,000 people in England.
•The number registered blind fell one per cent since the last collection, in contrast with the number registered as partially sighted, which increased one per cent.
•Approximately one in three on the register overall has an additional disability, broadly unchanged since the last collection.