Read Headway’s latest campaigning report.

When Funding Fails – The crisis facing brain injury charities

For the report, we surveyed the network of local Headway charities, asking how the crisis in health and social care funding was affecting them and the brain injury survivors and families they support.

Through the report, we are calling on the Government to: 

1. Fund national training for local authority and ICB commissioners and social workers on the complex, hidden, and fluctuating effects of brain injury, which are often misunderstood in care assessments.
2. Increase ringfenced funding for community-based specialist brain injury services, such as those provided by Headway.
3. Reduce waiting times and improve assessment systems by equipping adult social care teams with the resources and expertise to identify both immediate and long-term care needs of brain injury survivors.
4. Expand the Fair Payment Code to local authorities and ICBs, encouraging payment within 30 days and recognising those who meet this standard – supporting the sustainability of vital brain injury services.

Headway UK is undertaking the following actions: 

• Engaging with our Parliamentary Champions to encourage further parliamentary debate about the issues the report raises.
• Writing to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
• Tabling Parliamentary Questions to raise awareness and encourage debate in Parliament about the difficulties face by brain injury survivors and Headway charities.
• Press activity to raise awareness more generally of the issues and asks raised in the report.