New rehab codes “must be matched with rigorous checks”
Vocational rehabilitation provider Medicess has called for “rigorous quality checks” to add muscle to the rehab industry’s commitment to the new Codes of conduct launched by the UK Rehabilitation Council (UKRC).
The rehab standards, designed to protect the quality of care provided to people who require clinical and vocational rehabilitation, were recently launched in Westminster by Lord McKenzie of Luton.
Funded by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), the standards have received support from a broad coalition of interest groups and professional bodies, and are the result of a year’s consultation with stakeholders.
They are the first such documents to be written for the benefit of lay people and are expected to be used widely as an assessment tool by groups such as insurers, civil servants and personal injury lawyers when commissioning rehabilitation from private-sector providers.
Matthew Beard, Director of Medicess, said: “We fully support any measures that seek to deliver the highest level of clinical and vocational care for patients.
“However for the UKRC to fulfil its true potential it needs to deliver the regulatory standards to drive credibility in the industry. All providers must be subject to rigorous quality control and regular checks on training & professional standards, with real enforcement.”
Matthew explained that multi-disciplinary rehabilitation teams are already regulated by their recognised professional bodies. “The industry has a responsibility to deliver on these standards, and more, to ensure the value of professional rehabilitation is recognised, proving that effective clinical and vocational rehabilitation can cost-effectively help people return to work,” he said.
But while many of the professionals involved such as nurses, doctors, physiotherapists and occupational therapists have their own standards, there has been nothing up to now that applies to companies that provide rehabilitation. The UKRC explained the Codes apply to several new categories of worker, such as rehabilitation consultant and counsellor, which have no formal definition or professional oversight.
Dame Carol Black, National Director for Health and Work, said: “I am delighted that the UK Rehabilitation Council has taken the initiative to develop Rehabilitation Standards that are focused on the needs of purchasers and consumers of rehabilitation services… The Standards illustrate the hallmarks for quality provision of rehabilitation services whilst the accompanying guides, aimed at purchasers and consumers of rehabilitation services, offer assistance to seek out good providers.”
More than thirty groups were consulted during the process. UKRC will monitor the standards and the experiences of people who use them. As well as the DWP, they have been supported by a grant from the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives. The standards can be downloaded free of charge from www.rehabcouncil.org.uk/standards.php.