Sara HazzardSector leader

Biography

Sara Hazzard is Assistant Director of Strategic Communications at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) and Co-Chair of the Community Rehabilitation Alliance (CRA), a coalition of more than 65 health and social care charities and professional bodies in England committed to improving the commissioning, planning and delivery of rehabilitation. The CSP founded, co-chairs and convenes the CRA, which has sister alliances across the devolved nations. Hazzard is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (MCIPR) and has previously held communications and strategic roles at Richard House Children's Hospice and The Climate Coalition. She is publicly known for arguing that community rehabilitation services are chronically underfunded and fail to meet population need, and has called for rehabilitation to be treated as an equal pillar of healthcare alongside medicines and surgery. She regularly represents the CSP and CRA in media, parliamentary, and policy forums on NHS workforce, community health services and health equity.

References

1. 1.Focus on rehab in NHS workforce plan welcomed by CSP and alliance partners | CSP — Establishes Hazzard's dual role as CSP assistant director and CRA co-chair; documents her public advocacy on community rehabilitation investment
2. 2.Guest blog: Design rehab for the person, not the condition | Richmond Group of Charities — Identifies her full title as Assistant Director of Strategic Communications at the CSP and Co-Chair of the CRA
3. 3.ADASS joins the Community Rehabilitation Alliance | ADASS — Confirms her co-chair role; describes the CRA as covering England with sister alliances in devolved nations, made up of more than 60 health and social care charities and professional bodies
4. 4.Alliance work in England | CSP — Documents CRA policy achievements including influencing the NHS Intermediate Care Framework and the creation of the Director of Rehab role within NHS England

Expertise

Cited on

• Hospital discharge / bed-blocking
• Elderly care & frailty

Stated areas of expertise

• Community rehabilitation policy
• NHS workforce and community services
• Health inequalities and access to rehab
• Strategic communications in health
• Integrated care and multidisciplinary rehab
• Right to Rehab campaigning

Notable achievements

• Co-chaired the Community Rehabilitation Alliance's successful campaign for a dedicated Director of Rehabilitation role within NHS England — a role the CRA had been calling for, and which was subsequently created. Source ↗
• Led CRA engagement with the 2023 NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which the alliance welcomed as recognition that there needs to be increased investment in community rehabilitation services and workforce. Source ↗
• Supported the 2024 national 'Rehab Firsts' billboard and radio campaign under the Right to Rehab banner, securing support from more than 30 CRA member organisations across major UK cities. Source ↗
• Panellist at Labour Party Conference fringe event alongside an MP, the King's Fund CEO and the Richmond Group CEO, arguing for funded delivery of the government's neighbourhood health service commitment. Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “Five years after the pandemic, it's shocking that rehabilitation space continues to be sidelined and routinely taken away from physiotherapy teams who are then forced to provide care in corridors. These vital spaces are where people learn to walk again, recover from catastrophic life events such as stroke and rebuild their identity and lives after surgery in a dignified manner.”

  assistant director of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · Physiotherapy care in decline because of poor NHS facilities, poll shows ↗

• “Comprehensive access to physiotherapy could prevent nearly 200,000 falls and save the NHS more than £275m each year. Yet rehabilitation services are being held back by workforce shortages, recruitment freezes and a loss of clinical space and resources.”

  Co-chair, Community Rehab Alliance · Elderly care & frailty · 27 Aug 2026 · How to prevent older people from having fatal falls | Letters ↗

Source references

1. Physiotherapy care in decline because of poor NHS facilities, poll showstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
2. How to prevent older people from having fatal falls | Letterstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Staff pagehttps://www.csp.org.uk/news-events/press-office
• Press office emailpressoffice@csp.org.ukpublished here ↗
• Press office phone+44 (0)207 306 1111published here ↗
• Websitehttps://sarahazzard.blog/
• LinkedInhttps://uk.linkedin.com/in/sarahazzard

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.