The request by the Defence Secretary to the 6th Duke of Westminster ‘do something for the nation too’ and the subsequent concept of a new rural estate in the Midlands housing both a Defence rehab facility and, importantly, the first ever NHS Clinical Rehabilitation Centre, must be seen in the context of the prevailing NHS position on rehabilitation in 2010. The notion of rehabilitating people after serious injury or illness was established in the clinical arena in the NHS, but the UK’s record in this respect is amongst the worst in the world – notably evident in the statistics for returning people to life and work where the UK figure is 35% compared with 50 to 60% throughout Europe and the North American continent. This deficiency is also reflected in the size of the NHS rehabilitation workforce which is almost the smallest in the developed world. Dame Carol Black’s 2008 Report for the Department for Work & Pensions on the national workforce revealed a loss of 178 million working days annually due to injury.
It was with this knowledge that the DNRC Programme's 2010 feasibility study developed its National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) thinking which was then confirmed in the Written Ministerial Statement in 2009. On this basis the Stanford Hall Estate was acquired in 2011 specifically as it could accommodate 2 complementary establishments (Defence and National/NHS) and because it embodied rural parkland where the tranquillity would play its part in the rehab journey as well as providing space for outdoor rehab assets. The DNRC Programme was very clear that both establishments were to be designed in parallel to maximize the notion of ‘sharing’ as well as, jointly, taking a long term view of how clinical rehabilitation would develop over time. Designs on this basis were submitted for planning approval which was granted in 2013 – with the patient capacity of the NRC being 70 and the Defence facility (the DMRC) being 200. The modern design for the NRC (which was not subject to heritage considerations) put to the planning authority is shown below.