Sight for Surrey and FirstPoint have won a joint contract with Surrey County Council to provide a mobile sensory bus that will provide a mobile support and advice service to people in Surrey who may have vision loss, hearing loss or combined sight and hearing loss.
FirstPoint provides a range of services to deaf children and adults, and to deafened/hard of hearing adults and older people across Surrey.
By joining up with FirstPoint, we believe our core advantage is the combination of the skills of two specialist service providers – with significant experience of supplying specialist equipment – to enable the service to be strongly grounded in quality of advice, consistency of service and joined up delivery for service users.
Bob Hughes, Chief Executive of Sight for Surrey, said: “Surrey is a very large county with significant rural areas badly served by public transport. Accessing information and equipment training can be difficult if not impossible for people who cannot drive and have limited mobility.
“We are delighted to secure this contract and look forward to combining our skills with those of FirstPoint to provide a comprehensive service to all who need it and, in doing so, eradicate possible feelings of isolation and frustration.”
Fiona McIntosh, Director at FirstPoint, said: “This is a great opportunity for FirstPoint and Sight for Surrey to work together. The mobile unit will be able to reach people who might be unaware of the specialist services our two organisations provide. There are many people in Surrey who wear hearing aids but they do not know what other support or technology is available. The mobile unit will be an excellent and flexible way to get up to date information into the community.”
The mobile unit will be in operation by October 2014. As well as offering assessments in the community the vehicle will stock a comprehensive range of specialist devices, gadgets and equipment. This will widen the opportunities to access advice and the opportunity to experience what new technology can deliver for people with a vision impairment, hearing impairment or combined sight and hearing loss.
