Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) funding and (b) guidance his Department has provided for neuro-cognitive rehabilitation services in the NHS.

Neuro-cognitive rehabilitation is offered in a number of settings. NHS England commissions specialised in-patient rehabilitation for those patients with the most complex needs. However, the vast majority of rehabilitation care is locally commissioned by clinical commissioning groups who are best placed to meet the needs of their local population.

The Service Specification for ‘Specialist Rehabilitation for Patients with Highly Complex Needs’ sets out the categories of patient need and the levels of service in addition to describing the pathways into and out of the specialised service. The specification can be found at the following link:

www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/d02-rehab-pat-high-needs-0414.pdf

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides the guidance on several neurological conditions and, where appropriate, suitable rehabilitation guidance is provided. NICE also provides Quality Standards on ‘Head injury’ and ‘Rehabilitation after critical illness in adults’ which provide further guidance on neuro-rehabilitation. These can be found at the following links:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs74/resources/head-injury-pdf-2098848108229

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs158/resources/rehabilitation-after-critical-illness-in-adults-pdf-75545546693317