The Community Rehabilitation Alliance started shortly before the UK general election in December 2019, to campaign for better community rehabilitation services. It is run by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and has approximately 40 member organisations. As far as I can ascertain, it has no official structure or organisation, and it does not have a website. Some limited information is available here. Its stated goal, on its Twitter page (@rehab_alliance) is “Supporting National charities & professional bodies committed to improving commissioning, planning & delivery of comm rehab services.” The webpage also states that “the CRA has called for decision makers in England to appoint a national lead on rehabilitation, to develop a national rehabilitation strategy and to prioritise investment in community rehabilitation.” This page reports what I have discovered.
This Alliance is very much in keeping with the idea of a UK National Rehabilitation Community (here) as it includes both professional and public organisations, and it is focussed on rehabilitation. It also seems to be important; I have been told that it has set up work-streams on:
- Transforming Rehabilitation; with a Reimagining Rehab Task and Finish Group
- Responding to Covid; contributing to Long Covid Task Force
- Improving community rehabilitation data; with a Data and Evidence for Community Rehab Task and Finish Group
- Focusing on social care; with a Social Care and Community Rehab Task and Finish Group
- Influencing decision makers; with a Political Engagement Task and Finish Group
The Alliance seems to have a philosophy similar to Rehabilitation Matters, except that I am also interested in hospital-based rehabilitation (which is supported by the Alliance). Several pages and blogs on the site cover bullet points 1, 2 and 4. (here and here and here).
While the alliance may be undertaking useful work, and it is certainly a move in the right direction, I have some concerns. Although it was started in 2019, and has about 40 member organisations, and has several projects underway, and seems to have a political influence, it does not have any organisation, one cannot discover who is involved or what governance arrangements exist, and most of the information that was available in 2020 is no longer available on the internet. Nonetheless, the idea of an umbrella organisation or Alliance of organisations is, in my view, the way forward,
At one point, anyone interested may contact Martha Hannan, the Community rehabilitation alliance lead at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy website no longer gives any contact point, but the email address is given here in case it is still valid.
Email: hannanm@csp.org.uk
