Two reports on how to improve NHS-led rehabilitation are due to be published this month.
The fi rst report concerns the economic benefi ts of greater NHS-provided rehabilitation, by the chief medical offi cer for England, professor Sir Liam Donaldson. He led a cross-departmental group after a recommendation in spring 2004 from the Government’s Better Regulation Task Force.
The second report is by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which was asked by the taskforce to lead a group combining lawyers, insurers, the Health & Safety Executive and other NHS interested parties, to look at developing mechanisms for earlier access to rehabilitation.
The reports are expected to overlap closely with the DWP’s ongoing creation of a framework for vocational rehabilitation.
The Building Capacity for Work framework was launched in October and the DWP is now working on developing new approaches to the issue, it said.
The Government also stressed that “individual needs, not issues of liability” should be placed at the centre of the claims process.
