Chief Executive's welcome

Welcome to the National Blind Children’s Society's website. 2007 was a very exciting year for the charity; we succeeded in achieving the objectives set at the beginning of the year to support more children and young people with visual impairment along with their families and carers. At the end of 2007 we recruited several new members of staff (all who have a wealth of experience in working with children and families) to strengthen our Children’s Services Team. Our key objectives in 2008 are to expand our services even more, these include:

· Family Support

o A network of Family Groups is going to be developed throughout England in partnership with several key organisations, to ensure that families of children with a visual impairment receive support, access to up-to-date information and recreational opportunities in their local area. We ultimately aim to have Family Groups within reach of every family of children with a visual impairment in the UK.

o ‘A day with Tom at the eye hospital’ is a booklet explaining to the child what to expect when visiting the eye clinic, it has been extremely well received by parents and medical professionals and is available free of charge.

· Recreational Activities - A Programme of Activities has been established to include Days Out, Family Weekends plus lots more.

· CustomEyes large print book catalogue is to be expanded even more. Our partnership in providing large print books for the RNIB lending Library will continue plus it is our aim to increase the number of Local Education Authorities who will hold a collection of large print books for their schools.

· Educational Advocacy - as members of the National Educational Advocacy Partnership (NEAP), our work will continue in supporting parents to secure the most appropriate school placement for their child.

· Specialist Equipment – Information Communication Technology (ICT) equipment and software can provide a child or young person with visual impairment opportunities, in the development of social skills and enhancement within their education thus having a direct and positive impact helping them to achieve their full potential. The Society will continue to provide:-

o independent information of available equipment and software through prepared literature, online via our website and email and verbally via telephone support.

o full independent assessments, carried out by at qualified ICT assessor ensuring the recommend equipment and software meets the individual needs.

National Blind Children’s Society does not receive any statutory funding, it is reliant totally on voluntary donations from the general public, grant making trusts and companies. To enable the Society to continue to deliver the five key services, it needs to raise £1.6million a year.

Carolyn Fullard
Chief Executive