RNIB has recently launched a new and improved Sight Loss Data Tool (https://data.rnib.org.uk), providing up‑to‑date local and national data on vision impairment across the UK. The tool brings together a range of robust data sources and modelling to help build a clearer picture of the scale and distribution of vision impairment and eye health, including among children and young people.

The Sight Loss Data Tool is particularly relevant to Heads of Local Authority Sensory Support Services for Education but will be of interest to others working with children and young people. It supports service planning and workforce discussions by helping practitioners place individual children’s needs within a wider population context. The tool includes:

• breakdowns for children registered as Sight Impaired (SI) or Severely Sight Impaired (SSI) aged 0–4 and 5–17 (where available), and
• modelled estimates of the wider population of children and young people with vision impairment aged 0–16 and 17–25, based on prevalence evidence.

Used alongside RNIB’s children’s vision impairment (VI) services Freedom of Information (FOI) reports which include not just children and young people registered as SI or SSI, but all known to the VI service, the tool helps bring together these different but complementary sources of evidence. While the FOI reports provide detailed insight into how local authority VI services are organised, staffed and funded to support provision, the Sight Loss Data Tool provides population‑level context, showing the wider scale and distribution of vision impairment nationally and locally. Together, they help link service capacity and provision with the underlying level of need.

The Sight Loss Data Tool is a practical resource to support evidence‑based practice, helping practitioners contextualise caseload pressures, inform conversations with local authorities, and strengthen the evidence used in strategic planning.

RNIB is also hosting an online event on 12 May (11am–12pm) to introduce the revamped Sight Loss Data Tool and explore how it can be used in practice. Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you’d like to attend.