Registered Blind and Partially Sighted People, England 2019-20

The Care Act 2014 Section 77 subsection 1 states that ‘A Local Authority must establish and maintain a register of sight-impaired and severely sight-impaired adults who are ordinarily resident in its area’.

People that have a Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI) from an ophthalmologist choose whether to be included in their Local Authority’s register of blind or partially sighted people; registration is not automatic and so not everybody that has been certified as having vision impairment is recorded on a Local Authority register. This publication covers those who have registered, in England, as at 31^st March 2020.

As at 31 March 2020, 276,690 people were recorded on the Local Authority register. This equates to five registrations per 1,000 people in England (Please see the reference tables for further detail). Table 1 below shows that there is a drop of nearly 14,000 total registrations compared with the previous collection in 2017, however the mix by age has remained broadly the same.

Table 1: Number of people on the Local Authority register, for both blind and partially sighted, by age group, 2016-17 and 2019-20

Figures may not add due to rounding

Source: SSDA902 Collection, 2019-20, NHS Digital

When considering the split between registers, Table 2 illustrates that the number on the blind register has fallen 3.7%, and the number on the register for partially sighted has decreased by 5.7%.

Table 2: Number of people on the Local Authority registers, split by blind and partially sighted, by age group, 2016-17 and 2019-20

Source: SSDA902 Collection, 2019-20

NHS Digital figures may not add due to rounding

This report focuses on new registrations as some councils have told us that reductions on the register are due to data cleansing (Please see Data Quality summary for further detail). Previous reports have also highlighted that registers are not always maintained; for example, people who have moved areas, or died, may still appear on a local authority register.

In 2019-20, there were 20,945 new registrations overall, of which 9,435 (45.0%) were new registrations to the blind register.

Table 3: Number of new registrations for both blind and partially sighted people, by age group, per 100,000 population in England, 2019-20

Figures may not add due to rounding

Source: SSDA902 Collection, 2019-20, NHS Digital

Population figures

Table 3 illustrates that the number of new registrations per 100,000 population is greatest for those aged 75 and over.

If we consider changes since the data were last collected, Table 4 shows the 18-49 age band reports the greatest percentage increase to the blind register. The 0-4 age band reported a decrease in both registers, from the lowest baseline of all age categories.

Table 4: Number of people with a new registration, split by blind and partially sighted, by age group, 2016-17 and 2019-20

Figures may not add due to rounding

Source: SSDA902 Collection, 2019-20, NHS Digital

As the vast majority of registrations are from people aged 75 and over, the maps showing geographical variation across England have been split to shows those aged under 75 and those aged 75 and over.

The maps illustrate that new registrations differ by location, with Yorkshire and the Humber region reporting the highest number of new registrations across both age bands (23 new registrations per 100,000 population aged below 75, and 389 new registrations per 100,000 population aged 75 and over).

Figure 1: New registrations per 100,000 population, by age band, 2019-20

Despite the small increase at England level since the last collection, 45.0% of Local Authorities did report a decrease in new registrations. At Local Authority level, the change ranged from a decrease of 40.0% to an increase of 248.9% (Please see the reference tables for further detail).