Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

Please note that this website has a UK government access keys system.

Blindness and visual impairment

  • Last modified date:
    17 October 2007

Policy information and resources related to blindness and visual impairment including detailed information on certification of vision impairment.

Certification of Visual Impairment

The Department of Health has updated the mechanism for certifying people as blind or partially sighted, in response to requests from key stakeholders, as follows:

  • The Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI) form is signed by a consultant ophthalmologist in order to register someone as sight impaired/partially sighted or as severely sight impaired/blind. This provides the formal notification required by councils with social services responsibilities or their agents.
  • The Department also introduced two documents - the Low Vision Leaflet (LVL) and the Referral for Visual Impairment (RVI) to facilitate easier access to support services prior to certification.  

Framework implementation toolkit

A toolkit to aid local implementation of the CVI, LVL and the RVI is now available. This toolkit sets out the advantages of the new arrangements and uses simple examples to help participants understand their contribution in the identification and notification initiative a success.

Recently awarded grants to organisations related to visual impairment

The Department of Health has awarded Section 64 funding for the period of 2007 to 2008 to the voluntary organisations working with, or on behalf of, visually impaired people:  

  1. Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)
  2. Deafblind UK
  3. Sense
  4. Action for Blind People
  5. Organisation of Blind African Caribbeans

Access keys