Tanjit Dosanjh, Optometrist, Prison Optician Trust & Company

Early in my career I became aware that people in prison faced barriers to accessing essential eye care. I established The Prison Optician Trust to help tackle unmet need in the prison population. Today we provide more than 14,000 eye examinations each year for women and men in prison.

We have learnt a lot about eye care needs in the prison population and have developed a model which helps us forecast the clinical capacity required for each prison we serve. This means we can better plan care and meet need in a sustainable way.

We also offer training to eligible prisoners in ocular anatomy, understanding prescriptions, glazing and other essential optical skills. Prisoners then work for the service, making spectacles for other prisoners. This means we teach new skills which in turn helps people re-integrate back into the community once they leave prison.

Our goal is to ensure eye health inequalities are tackled at all levels. If we can help people see, they will find it easier to pick up new skills, turn their lives around, find opportunities when they leave, and reduce the re-offending rate.

We support FODO in helping to ensure everybody in the UK can access essential eye care services based on clinical need.