Overview
This guideline covers rehabilitation in all settings for children, young people and adults with a chronic neurological disorder, neurological impairment or disabling neurological symptoms due to acquired brain injury, acquired spinal cord injury, acquired peripheral nerve disorder, functional neurological disorder or progressive neurological disease.
This guideline does not cover rehabilitation for people with cerebral palsy, dementia, epilepsy, or stroke rehabilitation in adults. For a detailed list of the diseases, disorders and injuries that are included and excluded, see the section on included and excluded chronic neurological disorders.
This guideline should be read in conjunction with recommendations on rehabilitation in the following NICE guidelines, as appropriate:
- brain tumours (primary) and brain metastases in over 16s
- motor neurone disease: assessment and management
- multiple sclerosis in adults: management
- Parkinson’s disease in adults.
This guideline should also be read in conjunction with the following, as appropriate:
- assessment and early management of head injury, see NICE’s guideline on head injury
- hospital and early community-based coordination of rehabilitation for people with traumatic brain injury (as part of multiple injuries), see NICE’s guideline on rehabilitation after traumatic injury
- hospital and early community-based coordination of rehabilitation for people with traumatic injury to the spinal cord, see NICE’s guidelines on spinal injury: assessment and initial management and rehabilitation after traumatic injury
- specific rehabilitation interventions for people with spinal cord injury (who are not currently in a regional specialist spinal cord injury centre), see NICE’s guideline on rehabilitation after traumatic injury
- bed-based and home-based intermediate care, see NICE’s guideline on intermediate care including reablement.
Last reviewed: 15 October 2025
Next review: This guideline will be reviewed if there is new evidence that is likely to change the recommendations
How we prioritise updating our guidance
Decisions about updating our guidance are made by NICE’s prioritisation board. For more information on the principles and process, see NICE-wide topic prioritisation: the manual.
For information about individual topics, including any decisions affecting this guideline, see the summary table of prioritisation board decisions.
Recommendations
This guideline includes recommendations on:
- designing and commissioning rehabilitation services
- assessing rehabilitation needs and goal setting
- rehabilitation planning and delivery
- information, advice and learning as part of rehabilitation
- rehabilitation to maintain, improve or support function
- rehabilitation to support education, work, social and leisure activities, relationships and sex
Who is it for?
- Health, mental health and social care practitioners
- Commissioning groups that design and commission rehabilitation services and care pathways (including local authorities)
- Health, mental health and social care providers and other providers of rehabilitation services in the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) and private sectors
- People with a chronic neurological disorder, their families and carers, and the public
- People working in related services, including employers, education, housing, leisure, job centres, welfare advice and legal
- Advocates for people with a chronic neurological disorder.
Note: the guideline uses ‘person’ to mean an adult, child or young person. When applying the recommendations to a child or young person they will usually apply to their parents or carers as well.
Guideline development process
How we develop NICE guidelines
Your responsibility
The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.
All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.
Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.
Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.