Community rehabilitation

Nationwide, the CSP co-developed, with rehabilitation alliance partners, the Community Rehabilitation Best Practice Standards for the UK, publishing editions endorsed by the alliances in England and Northern Ireland and The Right to Rehab Coalition in Wales. The Scotland edition will be published in 2023. Funded by the CSP Charitable Trust, the standards were picked up by AHP leaders and others to drive service improvement at a service and system level. 

England  

• Following direct lobbying from the CSP, physiotherapy and rehabilitation were highlighted as key factors in the government’s delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services. 
• Having secured a director of rehabilitation in NHSE in 2021 (lobbied for by the CRA), the Alliance made a call for a rehab lead in each integrated care board (ICB) to be incorporated into the NHSE Intermediate Care Programme.  
• The CRA data and evidence task and finish group produced a report that created new opportunities for the CSP to be influencing data improvement programmes at NHSE in 2023.   
• Following lobbying from the CRA, the government established an Adult Social Care Discharge Fund of £500m to increase staffing to support rehab recovery at home through additional physiotherapists in community teams.  

Northern Ireland 

• In the first quarter of 2022 the CRA for Northern Ireland held several meetings with political parties in advance of Assembly elections in May 2022. We achieved several verbal commitments of support for a Right to Rehab and in some instances support in party manifestoes – with the Alliance party including a specific reference to the Right to Rehab campaign in theirs, for example. 
• In October the CRA hosted an event at Stormont, campaigning for a Right to Rehab to be included in the next Northern Ireland Programme for Government, where we gained support from all the political parties at Stormont. The minister for health, Robin Swann, was unable to attend but sent a letter in advance stating that he and the Department of Health, “fully support the aims and objectives of the Community Rehabilitation Alliance in Northern Ireland.”  Also in October, we hosted a stand at the DUP conference and organised a fringe meeting with members of the CRA, which featured in the DUP conference programme. DUP health spokesperson Pam Cameron, MLA and DUP health committee member Deborah Erskine, MLA both spoke at the event to voice their party’s support for a Right to Rehab for patients in Northern Ireland. 

Wales 

• After lobbying by the Right to Rehab Campaign for rehabilitation to be prioritised, the Welsh Government published the All Wales Rehabilitation Framework and made a commitment that rehab and prehab must be embedded in ‘all pathways’ as part of planned care recovery.  
• After a CSP campaign raising the issue of a loss of rehabilitation space under the Right to Rehab banner, the minister for health made a statement that rehab space must either be returned or suitable alternative space in the community be found.  
• The CSP has lobbied for year-on-year growth in physio commissioning numbers in Wales – in 2022 they grew by three per cent to 180 places.  
• The Streamlining ‘golden handcuff’ graduate scheme was finally scrapped – something that the CSP had called for since its introduction.  

Scotland  

• We held a Workforce Consensus Summit of physio leaders from education and practice to develop shared proposals for the Scottish government on addressing the physio supply problem, initially to feed into the AHP workforce review. This resulted in a proposal for making physio a ‘controlled subject’ like nursing and paramedic education is in Scotland. 
• Positive engagement with the AHP education and workforce policy review highlighted the importance of workforce planning and accredited workplace learning and delivered important shifts in policy in the final draft in December 2022.   
• Following campaigning for a Right to Rehabilitation, the Scottish government published the Once for Scotland Framework with six principles for good rehabilitation and committed to each Health Board and Health and Care Partnership having a rehab lead by 2025. 
• The CSP secured a constructive meeting with the then cabinet secretary for health, Humza Yousaf, in December 2022, following positive engagement at the SNP conference fringe meeting on workforce in October.    
• The CSP took an active role in the Right to Rehab Coalition in Scotland, leading on workstreams to adopt branding, adopt the rehabilitation standards and on campaign and engagement planning.