Celebrating Community Services
It's Celebrating Community Services Week, which means we're focussing on each of our five clinical divisions in turn - and how they make a huge difference to Birmingham communities.
BCHC's adult community services division has played an instrumental role in delivering the first neighbourhood health hub in Birmingham and Solihull, with colleagues working at pace to ensure a further five hubs are fully operational by the end of 2025.
The hubs are part of a new BCHC-led Community Care Collaborative, with a goal to provide better joined up health and care services in the community. They play a key role in the 10-year Health Plan for England, which aims to shift care from hospitals to community settings through initiatives like neighbourhood health hubs and increased home-based care.
Each new hub will be home to a care co-ordination centre with additional services being introduced, dependent on the needs of local citizens. Multidisciplinary hub-based teams will determine if the treatment a person needs can be delivered in the community as an alternative to hospital admission.
Washwood Heath Health and Wellbeing Centre was the first hub to successfully launch, two years ago. Located in East Birmingham, it houses an integrated neighbourhood team (INT), a care co-ordination centre, a diagnostics facility and a respiratory Same Day Emergency Care service, with plans to open an on-site heart failure service this year.
The integrated neighbourhood teams work closely with patients with complex health and care needs to better support their needs. Five test INTs were launched two years ago and, in addition to the hubs, adult community services divisional colleagues are now involved in rolling out an additional 11 INTs across Birmingham and Solihull by March 2026.
Based on their experience in setting up this hub and developing the INT programme, the insight of BCHC ASC colleagues was sought by government health advisors ahead of Labour coming into power in July 2024.
The Washwood Heath pilot site has welcomed numerous high-profile visitors and peer organisations from across the country, tested a new locality and neighbourhood care model, provided better care to hundreds of local citizens and featured in publications and news channels including the Financial Times, BBC News and ITV Central News.
This work has been shortlisted for two HSJ Awards - recognition that would not have been possible without the vision, determination and can-do attitude of adult community services colleagues.
Pictured above: The first BCHC ACS colleagues who moved into the new North Neighbourhood Hub at Stockland Green Health Centre in September 2025.
