‘Being independently mobile’:
Habilitation Provision research results
Kat Hogg
Blind Children UK is part of the Guide Dogs family
‘What is Habilitation training?’
Habilitation is defined in the Vision 2020 strategy as ‘the
acquisition of mobility, orientation and other independent
living skills in relation to children and young people (CYP)
born with vision impairment or who acquire it during
childhood’ (Vision 2020 UK, 2013).
However, Habilitation training is not currently available for
all children and young people with sight loss in the UK.
‘What is Habilitation training cont.?’
The Guide Dogs family advocate that all CYP with sight
loss in the UK should have access to habilitation training
that adheres to the Habilitation Quality Standards as and
when they require it.
The Quality Standards provide a baseline for habilitation
practice, and contain the skills, knowledge and
understanding needed by those delivering such training &
what they might be expected to deliver; they also include
the expected learning outcomes for the CYP with sight
loss being trained.
‘What is Habilitation training?’ cont.
The Quality Standards identify six learning outcomes for
CYP with VI:
1) The maximum degree of independent living;
2) the maximum degree of travel and mobility;
3) emotional well-being, including self-confidence and selfesteem;
4) maximum degree of social inclusion;
5) competence in the use of specialist Habilitation tools as
aids to mobility and independence;
6) the ability to be able to assess risk and anticipate likely
areas of personal difficulty in mobility and independent
living.
Habilitation provision research
Two projects have been carried out to explore the accessibility and
quality of habilitation provision for children and young people with
vision impairment (VI) in the UK:
Case Studies of habilitation provision: 12 detailed case studies
were collected across the UK: England (6) and 2 each in Scotland,
Northern Ireland, and Wales; benchmarked against the Quality
Standards.
Survey work: investigated the Habilitation training experiences of 43
CYP with VI (aged 12-25 years) and 68 parents of CYP with VI (aged
1-18 years).
Research outcomes: to inform the ‘Movement Matters’ programme,
and to update the Vision 2020 Children and Young People’s group.
Habilitation provision research findings
There is a lack of clarity of exactly what habilitation is; whether it is
a form of education, or a social service. The lack of clarity of exactly
what is and who is responsible for delivering its various complements is
at the heart of the problems of responsibilities for funding and delivery.
Budget cuts in recent years have impacted negatively on many
services and are expected to have further impacts.
Eligibility for services is likely to be tightened in the future as budgets
are expected to be cut further, potentially excluding many CYPVI who
need services.
Variation in service provision does not appear to be accounted for by
devolved national legislation rather, it appeared to reflect decisionmaking, funding, and service structures at Local Authority (LA) level.
Habilitation provision research findings
There is considerable variance in the accessibility of habilitation
services. Even where high quality habilitation services exist, some
CYP still do not access them because there is no systematic
provision of information and referral, particularly from medical
services, even where CYP meet the criteria for certification and
registration.
Less emphasis is placed by some local authorities on Independent
Living skills training, and outcomes of social inclusion and emotional
wellbeing, than on mobility training.
The importance of early intervention: The data indicates that if CYP
with sight loss are not introduced to mobility training at a young age,
they are likely to develop counter-productive strategies and may
reject offers of support, training and equipment if training is
introduced when they are older.
Habilitation provision research findings
Habilitation provision for young people post age 16
The case study work reported that one of the greatest gap in
habilitation provision lies within the provision of young people
post age 16, particularly if leaving education.
In some areas there is potential for some of these young
people to not have access to any service until they are 18
when they are eligible to access adult services.
Habilitation provision research findings
Mobility Extent: 41% of young people aged 18 to 25 years were not
able to get out and about as much as they would like.
Mobility training: Over half of the respondents reported that there
were some elements of mobility training that they would have liked to
have learnt at an earlier age.
The majority of young people stated that they thought that it would be
useful for them to have further mobility training.
Contact details:
Kat Hogg, Research Associate
kat.hogg@guidedogs.org.uk
Blind Children UK is part of the Guide Dogs family