Vision Care has called on the government to remove the national barriers preventing people affected by homelessness from accessing essential NHS eye care, following a visit by Gloucester MP Alex McIntyre to the charity’s Mobile Vision Service.
Mr McIntyre visited a Vision Care pop-up clinic at a trusted community venue in Gloucester city centre on Monday 20 July. The organisation supports asylum seekers and refugees, enabling Vision Care to provide comprehensive eye care in a safe, familiar and accessible environment.
He was welcomed by members of the Vision Care team, including Hannah Telfer, Chief Executive, and Nikhil Sonpal, Services Development Manager. During the visit, they showed him first-hand how bringing eye care directly into trusted community settings can overcome the barriers that prevent many people from using traditional optical services.
Mr McIntyre agreed that the model closely reflects the ambitions of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan, particularly its commitment to shift care into communities and deliver services closer to where people are.
He also committed to raising Vision Care’s three policy requests with the newly appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, bringing them to her attention early in her appointment.
The clinic was the second of nine Mobile Vision Service sessions being financially supported by NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board across the county.
The first clinic took place in Cheltenham and supported 12 patients. The second, attended by Mr McIntyre in Gloucester, provided comprehensive eye care to 14 people.
Together, the first two sessions have already reached 26 people.
The Gloucestershire programme forms part of Vision Care’s wider Mobile Vision Service. Since March 2026, the service has provided eye care to 231 people and dispensed 229 pairs of glasses.
The early results demonstrate the scale of unmet need, the effectiveness of delivering care in trusted community environments and the potential for this model to be replicated elsewhere.
The approach works. It is delivering results, has the support of local NHS commissioners and directly reflects the national direction of NHS policy. Yet existing national eligibility rules and administrative requirements continue to make it difficult to deliver consistently and sustainably across the country.
Until those barriers are removed, access to essential eye care will continue to depend too heavily on where someone is and whether local commissioners are willing and able to fund a solution.
Local leadership addressing a national gap
Vision Care has been providing accessible eye care in Gloucestershire since 2023, with NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board supporting its work almost from the beginning.
The ICB has now agreed to fund nine Mobile Vision Service clinics across Gloucestershire, enabling Vision Care to take comprehensive eye examinations and glasses directly into trusted organisations supporting people who may be excluded from traditional healthcare routes.
The first clinic took place in Cheltenham, while the second was held in Gloucester and attended by Alex McIntyre MP.
The mobile programme is helping Vision Care develop a more flexible and responsive approach to delivering care across the county.
Rather than relying solely on people finding and attending a fixed clinic, the mobile model allows Vision Care to work with a range of trusted community organisations and bring care closer to the people who need it.
Vision Care plans to withdraw from its existing static clinic provision in Gloucester and hopes to continue serving the city, and the wider county, through a flexible mobile model.
Vision Care has praised the ICB for recognising that reducing health inequalities requires services to be designed around people’s lives and circumstances, rather than expecting everyone to navigate conventional healthcare systems.
Its investment is also bridging a gap created by the current national system. Although NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board is funding an effective local solution, Vision Care believes individual commissioners should not have to find additional funding to overcome barriers created by national rules.
Hannah Telfer, Chief Executive of Vision Care, said:
“NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board deserves enormous credit for recognising this inequality and investing in a solution.
“It has supported our work in the county almost from the beginning, and its decision to fund nine clinics across Gloucestershire shows what can be achieved when local NHS leaders understand the barriers and are prepared to act.
“It was encouraging to hear Alex recognise how closely this work aligns with the NHS 10 Year Health Plan. Taking care into trusted community environments is exactly what moving services closer to people should look like in practice.
“We are also grateful that he has committed to raising our three requests directly with the new Health Secretary. This is an important opportunity to address these barriers early in her appointment and ensure people experiencing homelessness are not overlooked.
“The first two clinics, in Cheltenham and Gloucester, have already reached 26 people, while our wider Mobile Vision Service has supported 231 people and dispensed 229 pairs of glasses since March.
“These figures show that the need is real and that the solution works.
“But Gloucestershire is currently funding a gap that needs to be addressed nationally.
“People experiencing homelessness should not have better or worse access to essential eye care depending on where they happen to be or whether their local ICB can find additional funding.
“Gloucestershire is demonstrating that this model works. The government and NHS England now need to remove the barriers that make this additional intervention necessary.”
Rethinking how and where care is delivered
Vision Care’s Mobile Vision Service takes comprehensive eye care directly into homelessness services and other trusted community settings.
By delivering care in places where people already feel safe and access support, the service removes many of the practical and systemic barriers associated with traditional high-street services.
These can include difficulties demonstrating eligibility for NHS support, anxiety about unfamiliar clinical environments, challenges attending appointments and concerns about cost.
Nikhil Sonpal, Services Development Manager at Vision Care, said:
“We’re incredibly grateful for the support that Gloucestershire ICB has shown for our Mobile Vision Service. They were one of the first Integrated Care Boards to recognise that if we genuinely want to reduce health inequalities, we have to rethink how and where we deliver care.
“Their willingness to back an innovative approach has enabled us to take comprehensive eye care directly into the safe and trusted environments where people experiencing homelessness already access support, removing many of the barriers that prevent them from seeking help through traditional services.
“It was also a pleasure to welcome Alex McIntyre MP to one of our Gloucester clinics this week and to demonstrate the impact that can be achieved when healthcare commissioners, local charities and community organisations work together with a shared purpose.
“We’re already seeing growing interest from other Integrated Care Boards that want to explore similar models, which is incredibly encouraging. Our long-term ambition is to ensure that everyone, regardless of their circumstances, can access the eye care they need.
“We also hope that the evidence and partnerships we’re building will help shape future national policy, making community-based eye care for people affected by homelessness a recognised and sustainable part of the healthcare system.”
Three changes that would remove barriers nationally
Vision Care is calling for three focused changes to NHS eye care policy.
Explicitly include homelessness within eligibility for free NHS sight tests
People experiencing homelessness often have little or no income but may struggle to provide the evidence needed to demonstrate their entitlement under the current system.
Vision Care is calling for homelessness itself to provide a clear and consistent route to a free NHS sight test.
Remove the Pre-Visit Notification requirement for homelessness settings
Providers delivering NHS-funded optical services in settings such as day centres and hostels can be required to submit a Pre-Visit Notification before care is provided.
Vision Care believes this creates an unnecessary administrative barrier and makes it harder to take eye care directly into trusted community settings.
Removing the requirement would allow qualified providers to respond more quickly and effectively to local need and support the NHS ambition of delivering more care in communities.
Extend NHS repair and replacement support
Glasses are particularly vulnerable to being lost, damaged or stolen when someone is sleeping rough, living in insecure accommodation or moving frequently between services.
Vision Care is calling for NHS repair and replacement support to cover glasses lost, damaged or stolen in circumstances directly associated with homelessness.
Hannah continued:
“These are focused and achievable changes that would remove unnecessary barriers and allow existing NHS support to reach some of the people facing the greatest health inequalities.
“We are not simply highlighting a problem. We are offering practical solutions.
“Our Mobile Vision Service shows what can be achieved when we take care to people, rather than waiting for people facing significant barriers to find their way into traditional services.
“But local areas should not have to build and fund separate solutions to compensate for gaps in national policy.
“The government has committed to moving more NHS care into communities. It must now ensure that the rules governing NHS eye care enable that ambition rather than stand in its way.”
Sight must be part of the response to homelessness
Poor vision can affect almost every aspect of a person’s life.
It can make it harder to read important correspondence, attend appointments, manage medication, navigate unfamiliar environments, find employment and take the steps needed to move away from homelessness.
Vision Care believes eye health must therefore be recognised as an essential part of any credible attempt to reduce health inequalities and end homelessness.
Hannah added:
“Glasses will not end homelessness, but being unable to see can make almost every part of escaping homelessness more difficult.
“If we are serious about helping people rebuild their lives, we must ensure they can access the basic healthcare many of us take for granted.
“No one should be denied sight because they do not have a home.”
