The Community Rehabilitation Alliance in England is made up of more than 50 charities and professional bodies.
The Alliance is committed to improving commissioning, planning and delivery of rehabilitation.
Its priorities are:
- To gain political commitment to delivering universal access to rehabilitation to meet needs.
- To improve the quality of rehabilitation through new models, better data collection, planning, commissioning and delivery of services.
Alliance activities in England
The CRA is currently engaging with the UK Government over its plans to ensure there is adequate workforce to deliver rehab needs. Following a letter to the health secretary, Stephen Barclay in December 2022, it has been invited to meet with health minister, Will Quince. In his response to the CRA, Mr Quince acknowledged that rehab is as 'essential as medicines and surgery.'
The alliance, which is co-chaired and convened by the CSP, was founded in 2019 to make sure that the commitments to improve rehabilitation provision in the NHS long term plan were implemented.
In February 2020, after the elections in late 2019, we launched Live Well for Longer – a report produced with CRA partners about the importance of community rehabilitation to people’s lives – and we co-hosted a parliamentary event in Westminster with Sue Ryder and the Royal College of Occupational Therapists.
The CRA has successfully lobbied for the creation of a national lead on rehabilitation and was delighted when Jenny Keane was appointed to the newly created role of National Director of Rehabilitation.
The alliance is committed to working with NHS England as it develops a national rehabilitation strategy and continues to lobby for investment in community rehabilitation.
Working groups
The Community Rehabilitation Alliance in England currently has working groups that are active in the following areas:
- Data and evidence
- Political engagement
- Communications
- Expert reference group for best practice standards
- Local influencing
- Ageing Well
The Community Rehabilitation Alliance members
The CRA members include:
- Age UK
- Alzheimer's Society
- Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance
- Asthma + Lung UK
- The British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians
- British and Irish Orthoptic Society
- British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation
- British Association of Social Workers
- The British Association of Sport Rehabilitators
- British Chiropractic Association
- The British Dietetic Association
- British Geriatrics Society
- British Heart Foundation
- The British Psychological Society
- British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine
- College of Paramedics
- Community Therapists Network
- The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
- Chiltern Music Therapy
- The Disabilities Trust
- Fifth Sense
- FitzRoy
- Headway – the Brain Injury Association
- ICUsteps
- INPA - Independent Neurorehabilitation Providers Alliance
- The Intensive Care Society
- Later Life Training
- Leonard Cheshire
- Limbless Association
- Macmillan Cancer Support
- Meningitis Research Foundation
- MS Society
- Muscular Dystrophy UK
- The National Care Forum
- National Orthopaedic Alliance
- National Voices
- The Neurological Alliance
- Nuffield Health
- Parkinson’s UK
- Person-Centred Neurosciences Society
- The Queen’s Nursing Institute
- Rehabilitation Workers Professional Network
- Royal College of Occupational Therapists
- Royal College of Physicians
- Royal College of Podiatry
- Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
- RNIB - Royal National Institute of Blind People
- Royal Osteoporosis Society
- Same You
- The Society of Sports Therapists
- The Society for Research in Rehabilitation
- Spinal Injuries Association
- Stroke Association
- Sue Ryder
- Thomas Pocklington Trust
- ukactive
- UKKA - UK Kidney Association
- The United Kingdom Brain Injury Forum
- UP – The Adult Cerebral Palsy Movement
- Versus Arthritis
- Vocational Rehabilitation Association
Contact
If you have any questions or would like to find out further information about the CRA, please get in touch.
For media and communications queries relating to the alliance, contact strategic communications manager, James Crichton-Smith.