Royal National Institute of Blind People

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is a UK charity that offers information, support and advice to people in the UK with sight loss.

The Charity Commission for England and Wales investigated the charity from 2015 to 2019 and said that its failings which included medical errors and undocumented cases of physical restraint at its schools and residential facilities were some of the worst it had ever dealt with.

Organisation
Anna Tylor has been RNIB's Chair since 2020. Matt Stringer was appointed Chief Executive in 2019.

King Charles III is the charity's Patron. His mother Queen Elizabeth II was RNIB's Patron from the start of her reign in 1952 until her death in 2022.

History
The RNIB's founder was Thomas Rhodes Armitage, a doctor with impaired eyesight who, in 1868, founded the British and Foreign Society for Improving Embossed Literature for the Blind. This later became the British and Foreign Blind Association. In 1875 Queen Victoria became the organisation's first patron.

The organisation received a Royal Charter in 1948, and changed its name to Royal National Institute for the Blind in 1953. In 2002, RNIB membership was introduced and the organisation's name changed to Royal National Institute of the Blind. In June 2007 the organisation changed its name again, to Royal National Institute of Blind People.

In October 2008, RNIB and Action for Blind People agreed in principle to combine some services across England. The new arrangement began in April 2009, resulting in Action for Blind People becoming an Associate Charity of RNIB.

From 2000 the charity operated out of an office on London's Judd Street which it shared with Guide Dogs. However, it sold the remaining 90-years of its lease in 2021. The Duchess of Edinburgh opened the organisation's new headquarters in the Grimaldi Building on Pentonville Road, London in 2023.

Charity Commission Inquiry
In 2015, the Charity Commission for England and Wales launched an inquiry into the institute following serious allegations of systemic failings within the organisation. The inquiry uncovered significant management, oversight, and staffing shortcomings that led to repeated incidents where young people in the charity's care were put at risk or harmed. Moreover, it revealed that staff and trustees at RNIB had been guilty of misconduct and mismanagement in several of its care facilities over several years, breaching their duty of care to beneficiaries. The Charity Commission described this investigation as one of the most severe cases of charity failure. It highlighted that RNIB's corporate stewardship of services for children with complex needs fell far short of expectations.

The Charity Commission's report stated that the RNIB failed to protect its beneficiaries from coming to harm. Moreover, that serious safeguarding breaches occurred within the charity due to systemic weaknesses and the absence of a centralised data-management system for its care settings. As part of the inquiry, the charities commission heard from multiple parties involved with the charity who attributed its failings to dysfunctional leadership and governance over many years. It also found that the RNIB Pears Centre for Specialist Learning, a residential school near Coventry, failed to ensure its staff had adequate training, made multiple administration errors, neglected to document incidents of physical restraint, lacked effective safeguarding procedures, and administered the wrong medication on numerous occasions.

The review attributed the charity's failings to a culture that was dismissive of external criticism from the parents of its beneficiaries. Furthermore, the charity's board was focused on narrow regulatory compliance and dismissive of criticism from the regulatory organisations it was accountable to; the Care Quality Commission and Ofsted.

The inquiry also found inadequate responses to complaints about unexplained injuries and improper management of medical care, possibly due to a reliance on unqualified and temporary staff. Moreover, five RNIB staff members were referred to the Disclosure and Barring Service after an audit uncovered twenty-six unreported serious incidents across the charity's facilities from March 2017 to April 2018.

Two of the charity's institutional creditors considered it to have defaulted on its credit agreement terms because of the Pears Centre's regulatory difficulties and Ofted's proposed cancellation of the establishment's registration. Therefore, its creditors declared that the organisation had to pay £21 million immediately. Subsequently, RNIB sold all 18 of its care homes and schools to mitigate the financial crises and limit the impact on its reputation.

The Charity Commission described RNIB's shortcomings as 'one of the worst examples we have uncovered of poor governance and oversight having a direct impact on vulnerable people'. The charity's former chief executive and four of its trustees resigned at the start of the inquiry.

RNIB’s chief executive, Matt Stringer, apologised for the failings.

Programmes
RNIB participates in the UK Vision Strategy, an initiative of a large eye health and sight loss alliance to promote the eye health of the nation.

Education and residential care
RNIB owns several educational establishments and residential care homes:

RNIB Sunshine House School and Children's Home
Sunshine House is a specialist primary school, children's home and service for families in Northwood, Middlesex. The school educates blind and partially sighted children with significant learning difficulties and disabilities between the ages of 2 and 11 years. The residential accommodation is open to children aged between 2 and 14 years who are blind or partially sighted with significant learning difficulties and disabilities, whether they also attend the school. Children stay at Sunshine House overnight up to four nights per week, up to 50 weeks per year.

RNIB Pears Centre for Specialist Learning
RNIB Pears Centre for Specialist Learning was a school and children’s home for young people who are blind or partially sighted and who also have multiple disabilities or complex needs such as severe or profound learning disabilities, physical disabilities, additional sensory impairment, healthcare needs and autistic spectrum disorders. The school was run by RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People). It was based just outside Coventry.

RNIB Pears Centre was categorised by Ofsted as a special, non-maintained school for 2- to 19-year-olds and as a children's home. Each service was inspected independently of one another by Ofsted. The children's home was rated as 'Outstanding' by Ofsted in November 2011. The school also achieved an 'Outstanding' Ofsted grading in February 2013, but in November 2017 it was graded as inadequate. The Charity Commission for England and Wales launched an inquiry into the school in 2018 following a sexual abuse allegation. On Tuesday 4 September 2018 the RNIB announced both the children's home and school will close on 7 November 2018, as the RNIB closed the children's home on site. The school was previously known as Rushton Hall School and then RNIB Rushton School and Children's Home. Princess Anne reopened the school in 2012 as the RNIB Pears Centre for Specialist Learning – the new name reflected the donation and support given to the school by the Pears Foundation.

The school was founded in 1957, at Rushton Hall in Northamptonshire. In 2002, the school moved to a shared site with Exhall Grange School in Coventry.

In 2005, planning began for a major redevelopment of the entire school site. The redevelopment was finished in 2012.

The Charity Commission for England and Wales (CC) made a two-year inquiry into the residential school after one of its subsidiaries alleged a 'sexually abusive practice' was occurring there. The CCs' report posited that the institution had exposed vulnerable children to harm and said that it was 'one of the worst examples' it had ever uncovered.

The CC's report said that the RNIB run school's failings had a serious impact on vulnerable people and recorded several cases of distress and harm to young disabled children.

The RNIB claimed it had attempted to 'turn the service around' after the CC published their report.

When the CC published its report the RNIB issued an apology which claimed that the findings, 'represent(s) a low point in our 152-year history'. The findings included a child whose feet were injured because they wore shoes that were too small for three months. Moreover, the inquiry found a 'disproportionately high number of basic medication errors' with one epileptic child suffering an increase in seizures. It also found that the school failed to document physical restraint incidents.

RNIB College Loughborough
RNIB College Loughborough is based in Loughborough, Leicestershire, and supports students with sight loss and other disabilities. The college provides further education programmes to learners aged 16–25 and adult employment programmes for adult learners aged 18–63 who are unemployed and looking to develop their skills or retrain and gain employment. The college offers residential or day programmes.

Books
The RNIB National Library Service contains more than 40,000 titles, making it the largest specialist library in the UK for readers with sight loss. It stocks books in accessible formats, such as braille and giant print. It also stocks braille music. The RNIB National Library Service was created in 2007 when the RNIB's library services merged with the National Library for the Blind.

Media
RNIB produces a number of magazines for professionals, carers and blind and partially sighted people.

Insight magazine
Insight magazine is aimed at parents and professionals who support blind and partially sighted children and young people, including those with complex needs. The magazine covers a number of areas including information about learning and development, news and personal stories. Insight was first published by RNIB in January 2006; prior to this RNIB produced VisAbility and Eye Contact.

NB magazine
NB (New Beacon) magazine is aimed at health and social care professionals who work with blind and partially sighted people. NB supports RNIB's focus on prevention, independent living and inclusion. The magazine covers a number of areas including eye health, rehabilitation and case studies. NB was first published by in 1917 as The Beacon; the magazine changed its name in 1930 to New Beacon and became known as NB in 2006. NB celebrated its 1,000th issue in 2001.

Radio
The RNIB runs RNIB Connect Radio, which was Europe's first radio service for blind people. The group lobbied through 2023 for better disability support across the National Health Service (NHS) broadly.

Alumni

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