Rehabilitation Awareness Week 2026
Rehabilitation Awareness Week runs from 14 to 20 September 2026. The CSP is making the case for the rehabilitation services, staff and spaces patients need.
Rehabilitation Awareness Week runs from 14 to 20 September 2026. Led by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, it highlights what rehabilitation makes possible and makes the case for the rehabilitation services, staff and spaces that patients need.
Rehabilitation is one of the least visible parts of healthcare. Surgery, diagnosis and emergency care get the attention. The months afterwards, when someone is relearning how to walk, regaining the strength to get up from a chair, or working out how to manage a long-term condition without losing their independence, are where a great deal of the actual recovery happens. That work is often slow, undramatic, and delivered in living rooms and community halls rather than hospitals.
It is also the part of the system under the most pressure. Community rehabilitation capacity has not kept pace with demand, and the people most affected are those who need sustained input over months rather than a single appointment: people recovering from stroke or brain injury, people with progressive neurological conditions, older adults after a fall or a fracture, and children with disabilities whose development depends on consistent therapy.
This is why the CSP campaign is framed around the right to rehab. The argument is that rehabilitation should be treated as an entitlement rather than an optional extra, and resourced accordingly. The NHS 10 Year Plan has since put rehabilitation into the architecture of neighbourhood health services, which is genuine progress. The gap between that commitment and what people can access locally today remains wide.
Taking part
Rehabilitation Awareness Week is a campaign anyone can join, not just physiotherapists.
The CSP has published a Rehabilitation Awareness Week toolkit containing ready-made social media posts and adaptable posters. Care homes, schools, community groups and families are all welcome to use them.
The CSP is also collecting examples of rehabilitation in practice: patient stories, case studies, service improvements. If you have seen what rehabilitation made possible for someone, those examples can be sent to cre@csp.org.uk or communityrehab@csp.org.uk. Real examples are what shift the argument with commissioners and politicians, and there are never enough of them from community settings.
Members can follow the campaign through the CSP's Right to Rehab and community rehabilitation pages, and there is a free practice-sharing webinar series running through the week covering memory rehabilitation at home, frailty and rural rehabilitation, technology in rehabilitation, evidencing impact, and linking rehabilitation with community exercise.
We will be sharing campaign material through the week and would encourage the schools, colleges and care settings we work with to do the same.
Rehabilitation Awareness Week is organised by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, 14 to 20 September 2026.