The survey, prepared for the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Visual Impairment, revealed that 80 per cent of Scotland's 5,500 nursery school-aged children are not getting their eyes tested by health authorities. Yet of those who have been tested, between 11 and 15 per cent are estimated to have eye defects which, if not corrected, could impede their educational and social development.
In a postcode lottery of provision, the survey found children living in disadvantaged areas were least likely to be tested. In Glasgow alone, children were being tested in Bearsden and Milngavie, while those in the Easterhouse were not. Ayrshire was the only area in Scotland where all children were being screened by the age of five.
Glasgow-based optometrist Frank Munro, president of the College of Optometrists and chair of its Scottish committee, said, 'The screening system is failing in Scotland and the UK as a whole. Delivery and uptake is patchy and limited, resulting in large numbers of eye problems which can impact on educational and behaviour development in children.'
Mr Munro is studying a range of model deliveries for eye screening, including health promotion to urge parents to take up free tests. Free voluntary tests are available for the under-16s from high street optometrists.
But Peter Lee, director of the Childhood and Families Research and Development Centre at the University of Strathclyde, said, 'If Ayrshire can deliver universal screening then all health authorities should be able to. The easiest way to deliver the screening should be through the school. Contacting parents would have to be done in an interactive way. Giving out leaflets would not be good enough.'
Isobel Lawson, director of Stepping Stones for Families, a voluntary organisation that runs projects for under-fives in deprived areas, said, 'Slowness on the part of a child may be due to undiagnosed eye problems, yet eye testing seems to have fallen down a black hole. A way has to be found to ensure parents and their children access services.'
The Scottish Committee of Optometrists is working with RNIB Scotland and other members of the cross-party parliamentary group to draw up proposals for ways to introduce universal sight screening in Scotland. Cross-party group chairwoman Kate MacLean MSP said, 'Given that large numbers of children have undetected eye problems affecting their education, something needs to be done quickly.'