Academic Rehabilitation was set up at King’s College London in 2001 with an endowment from the Dunhill Medical Trust to mark its 50th Anniversary, which established the Herbert Dunhill Chair of Rehabilitation. Professor Lynne Turner-Stokes was appointed to the Chair in 2001, and in 2003 the rehabilitation team joined the Department of Palliative Care and Policy to form the Department of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation at King's College London.
 
The department has been developed in collaboration with Northwick Park Hospital where the NW Thames Regional Rehabilitation Service Network provides access to a large population of patients with complex disability arising from severe brain injury or other neurological conditions.

• Professor Turner-Stokes runs the Regional Rehabilitation Unit (RRU) which forms the central hub of the network. In addition to its clinical service, the RRU acts as a regional focus for teaching and research for all professions involved in rehabilitation, and it is now a formally affiliated unit of KCL. This setting offers an ideal opportunity for translational research, and the extensive programme now established on the RRU allows the evaluation of complex interventions and outcomes for severe disability in the context of real life NHS practice.
• The recent appointment of Professor Derick Wade now affords the opportunity to expand this clinical base further through a similar arrangement with the Oxford Centre for Enablement.
• In addition, a consortium arrangement is also under development with Professor Keith Andrews at the Institute of Complex Disability, based in the Royal Hospital for Neurodisability, Putney.