Benefits of RWPN Membership
By joining RWPN you will become a member of the professional body for Vision Rehabilitation Workers and Habilitation Specialists. Full membership makes you eligible join the professional register (subject to proof of qualification). Since launching in 2014 we now have over 390 full members. Your membership of the professional body enables us to represent you, your organisation and the wider workforce to the health and social care sector. We promote the interests of the workforce and promote the benefits to blind and partially sighted people of vision rehabilitation and habilitation.
Developing professional guidance and standards
RWPN member services
Until 2017, and unlike other professions, Vision Rehabilitation Workers did not have to undertake a compulsory programme of CPD. RWPN believed this was not healthy for the profession and did not provide protection and reassurance to the people who receive our services. CPD is a vital component in maintaining standards, in developing a pride in the work you do and ensuring your employer values your contribution to their services to blind and partially sighted people. In 2017 RWPN launched a formal structure for CPD that is a requirement of membership. In doing this, members can evidence that they are not only maintaining their core skills but also that they are committed to developing their practice and being more knowledgeable professionals. For more details about the scheme go to "The Profession" tab of this website.
RWPN sends out a quarterly update to members that includes any relevant policy and practice updates, information on new products or developments of interest and links to any specific work that RWPN has been involved with.
RWPN has set up a number of Special Interest Groups on this website. These are open to members only and are intended to be a resource of more detailed information about particular areas of practice, including areas of research, areas of practice that are more complex and ways of posting and sharing what members are up to. They make a good resource for CPD too. Special interest groups currently open are: Orientation & Mobility, Low Vision, Deafblindness, Learning Disability/Acquired Brain Injury, Children and Dementia.
We send out job adverts to members on a regular basis.
Advice and support for members on issues in the workplace is available via phone and email from specialists within RWPN.
Ensuring the Future of Qualification Training
A healthy professional workforce requires that those entering it and those already working in it are trained to a broadly defined range of competencies. RWPN has played a pivotal role in the government's Trailblazer Apprenticeship Scheme in England: working with employers in the sector, RWPN helped to define the apprenticeship standard and has been approved to become the end-point assessor organisation for this programme. In addition RWPN is actively involved with the universities that train Vision Rehabilitation Workers in England and Scotland.
RWPN Campaigning, Influencing and Promoting
Raising the profile of visual impairment rehabilitation and Rehabilitation Workers is the prime objective of RWPN. The lack of statutory professional registration status across all four countries of the UK continues to be an issue RWPN is committed to changing. We continue to make representation to national governments and Care Councils about the need to protect blind and partially sighted people through a register of practising professionals – a system that already applies to other, similar, professions such as Social Work and Occupational Therapy.
We are working with organisations such as ADASS (The Association of Directors of Adult Social Care) and Skills for Care to raise the profile of vision rehabilitation and the need to ensure the number of professionals meets the needs of the population.