The impact of our work

During the period of 2018-19 The Children’s Trust supported

Ready to admit status is achieved once the child is medically stable and ready to begin their rehabilitation programme.

The below provides some highlights from our 2020 Impacts Report, a full copy of which is available for download here.

Type of acquired brain injury, category A admissions 2018-19

Figure one: type of acquired brain injury (n=59)

Length of time from injury to admission, category A admission 2018-19

Figure two: length of time from injury to admission (n=59)

Figure three: change in functional ability during rehabilitation (PEDI-CAT scores, n=24)

Reduction in rehabilitation complexity

The children and young people supported during 2018-19 also had a reduced level of complexity of rehabilitation needs from the time of admission to discharge. This includes needs such as nursing, therapy, medical needs and equipment.

On admission, one third (19/57) of the group had very high complexity (captured with the Rehabilitation Complexity Scale). In comparison, on discharge, a greater proportion of the children had high, standard and low levels of complexity.

Figure four: change in complexity during rehabilitation (RCS scores, n=57)

Home

Severe acquired brain injury can be life-changing and, for some, the child’s medical needs remain a priority. In 2018-19, The Children’s Trust enabled 90% of children admitted with category A needs to return to live with their families. In some cases, the team supported families who needed to have adaptations to their homes, or had to move (23 families).

The remaining 10% of children and young people supported during this time had highly-complex needs and transferred to long-stay residential facilities, some of whom stayed with us and now attend our specialist school. 

School

Co-ordination of future educational placement involves a multi-disciplinary team including teachers, educational psychologists and clinicians both at The Children’s Trust and in the child’s local area. In 2018-19 (academic year), 30 children/young people returned to mainstream school, 15 accessed special education, while 10 were not of school age/not back in school.

After rehabilitation

90% of the children and young people had a local planning meeting to bring together all the local services who would be providing ongoing support to the children and their families when they return home.

Investment in rehabilitation saves money

Why invest in rehabilitation?

Neurorehabilitation is one of most cost-effective interventions available to the NHS. Substantial and robust evidence supports the clinical and cost effectiveness of neurorehabilitation. Although individuals with complex needs may require a longer hospital stay, the front-loaded cost of providing early specialist neurorehabilitation for these individuals is rapidly offset by longer-term savings in the cost of community care, making this a highly cost-efficient intervention.

These savings are substantial and have been estimated at £500 per week for each ABI survivor requiring specialist neurorehabilitation, or over £5 billion of annual savings for the 300,000 individuals who need this service each year (source: Time for Change, APPG Report 2018/9).

Patients with a traumatic brain injury who receive rehabilitation once they have left an acute hospital setting, cost the NHS and social care £27,800 less a year than those who don’t (source: Manifesto for Community Rehabilitation: let’s live well longer, UKABIF 2019).

1.3 million people live with the effects of brain injury at a cost to the UK economy of £15 billion per annum, a figure that is equivalent to 10% of the annual NHS
budget (source: Centre for Mental Health).

A young person with a brain haemorrhage normally moves on from an acute hospital setting to an older person’s care home for life. If, instead, they moved to a specialist centre for rehabilitation, within five years they’d be living independently. Over the course of a lifetime, this saves £2 million from social care and NHS budgets (source: Manifesto for Community Rehabilitation, Nov 2019/The case for proactive neurological care. London: Sue Ryder; 2018).

Every £1 invested in enhanced speech and language therapy generates £6.43 through increased lifetime earnings. Approximately 203,000 children aged 6-10 in the UK have speech and language impairment requiring therapy. The estimated annual net benefit is £623.4 million in England. (source: NHSE Commissioning Guidance for Rehabilitation 2016).

For every £1 spent on orthotic services, £4 is saved. This represents a saving of £400 million to the NHS (source: NHSE Commissioning Guidance for Rehabilitation 2016).