This review examines the meaning of rehabilitation, the provision of it and responsibilities for rehabilitation services within health and social care, and trends in the availability of provision. It concludes that there is increasing awareness of the importance of rehabilitation but, in practice, opportunities for it are not being fully realised. Purposeful action is needed to develop rehabilitation, organising services in ways that reflect good practice. If progress is to be made, there are four requirements: it is essential to have an explicit understanding of the objectives of rehabilitation and organise effectively in line with them; changed financial incentives are likely to be needed if improved rehabilitative opportunities are to be developed; rehabilitation practice and contracting needs to be evidence-based; and the evidence base needs to be further developed and improved, placing particular emphasis on the experiences of users and the outcomes.