Hanna at National Boccia Day

Residential rehabilitation

We offer a range of residential brain injury rehabilitation services for children and young people with acquired brain injury (ABI).

In 1985 we started the UK's first paediatric brain injury rehabilitation service and today, we now run the county’s largest service of its kind from our national specialist centre in Tadworth, Surrey.

As one of the only services which can provide the most complex rehabilitation to children and young people with acquired brain injury outside of a hospital setting, our work sees us support children from right across the UK.

Our flexible services reflect the range of abilities and needs of children with brain injuries; from those who are minimally conscious to those who appear to have made a full physical recovery but are left with 'hidden' problems with their cognition, memory, communication and behaviour.

Our services aim to:

  • maximise each child's potential
  • restore lost skills where possible, develop alternative skills and provide compensatory aids as needed
  • facilitate new learning beyond the end of the child's natural recovery period
  • develop an understanding of the child's needs
  • ensure the child's home environment is modified for the way they will function after their brain injury
  • prevent secondary problems such as joint contractures developing.

The rehabilitation team also works with the child and their family to help them come to terms with the new needs of their child.

Funding and referrals

Our rehabilitation service is funded in a number of ways. As the UK’s only dedicated neurorehabilitation provider with a National Specialised Commissioning Contract to deliver brain injury rehabilitation in conjunction with NHS England, funding flows automatically for children and young people who meet certain criteria (subject to assessment and placement availability). In addition, we also work with integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities across the UK to secure funding for placements. Private placements are available, typically funded by insurance companies, case management organisations, embassies representing a child, or by families themselves. As a charity, we need to raise £7m each year to help support children and their families, and heavily rely upon the generous donations of our supporters in doing so.

If you’re a healthcare professional working with a child or young person with acquired brain injury, you can download our specialist services brochure to find out more about how our services may be able to support them.

Download our specialist services brochure

Specialised Commissioning – our partnership with NHS England

The Children’s Trust is the only paediatric rehabilitation provider outside of an acute hospital setting appointed by NHS England to deliver specialist neurorehabilitation to children in England who meet National Specialised Commissioning eligibility criteria for category A rehabilitation (which is the criteria the children with the most severe brain injuries are categorised as).

If a child meets this criteria, funding is automatically available should a place be offered (subject to assessment). 

We will assess any child referred for rehabilitation within 10 working days, during which their needs are reviewed in line with the category A rehabilitation criteria. Planning for a child’s return home begins before they even arrive with us and we work with our community counterparts to ensure the transition home is as smooth as possible. We are obliged by NHS England to inform integrated care boards and community teams when a child is offered a funded rehabilitation programme to support a comprehensive discharge plan.

Integrated Care Boards and Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland

Children who do not meet the NHS England funding criteria (category A) can still benefit from specialist rehabilitation at The Children’s Trust under category B funding.  Should a place be offered, these placements are funded by local health authorities through their integrated care board (ICB) and/or social care. Placements for children from Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are funded via their respective health bodies, across all categories of severity.

For further information on NHS commissioning and how placements are funded, please contact our Placements Team on 01737 365080 or email placements@thechildrenstrust.org.uk.

  • 53

    children received intensive rehabilitation at our national specialist centre following a brain injury in 2020/21.

  • 21%

    of children were admitted for brain injury rehabilitation following a traumatic brain injury.

  • 34%

    of children were admitted for brain injury rehabilitation after a stroke.

Other services you may be interested in...

Step-down care from hospital to home

Step-down placements at The Children’s Trust support the transition from hospital to home for medically-stable children and young people aged 0-18 with complex health needs following neurosurgical procedures and prolonged stays in Intensive Treatment Units who might otherwise be staying long-term in hospital.

Our school and residential care

The Children's Trust School is located at our national specialist centre in Tadworth, Surrey and is one of the only special schools in the UK that provides education, therapy and care exclusively for children and young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties and complex health needs.

Amelia in the garden

Support in your community

The Children's Trust Community Rehabilitation Service provides specialist goal-orientated neurorehabilitation delivered in the child's environment. Our ultimate goal is to maximise the child's participation in everyday life.