We are BCHC
Chief executive update
Latest update from Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust CEO Richard Kirby.
October 2025
Welcome to this update on our work here at BCHC.
We marked the beginning of Black History Month with an event at Moseley Hall Hospital that included song, poetry and much more. The theme this year of “standing firm in power and pride” is a powerful tribute to the contribution made by Black people in so many areas of life, including of course the NHS and BCHC.
As well as providing an opportunity to celebrate the contribution of Black colleagues to Team BCHC, marking occasions such as Black History Month provides an important reminder of the diversity of our team. For me, this diversity is a source of strength and provides us with perspectives, experiences and opportunities that we would not have without it.
This is especially important in seeking to provide services which meet the needs of the diverse city that we serve. That is why “inclusive”, as one of our shared BCHC values, is so important and why our leadership team encourages all colleagues to take this seriously in the way we work with each other and care for our patients and service users.
I am pleased to report that we have received a record number - 545 - of nominations for our Values in Practice Awards this year. The leadership team would like to congratulate everyone nominated and I very much look forward to taking part in the judging process - every year, it is inspiring to read so many stories of how colleagues' commitment and compassion have made a lasting impact on patients, service users and the people they work alongside.
I would like to thank everyone involved in organising our AGM and annual members' meeting last month, and all our partners and stakeholders who attended. It was particularly helpful to reflect on next steps in the development of the Community Care Collaborative and the role of Community Connexions in bringing the voice of the citizen into our work.
Winter resilience
Flu vaccination programmes have begun at BCHC, as elsewhere, and we are encouraging all colleagues to get vaccinated in order to protect themselves, their colleagues and the communities we serve. As providers of the city-wide immunisation service for school aged children, we would also appreciate any support to remind parents and carers to “opt in” and give consent for their children to have their flu vaccinations in schools or clinics. Our vision is to provide the best care in order to sustain healthy communities - to succeed, it's important that we all play our part.
Heading into the second half of 2025/26, we are seeing improvement in our financial position, in line with our recovery plan, while our care quality indicators remain strong. Ensuring our Urgent and Emergency Care and Winter Plan actions have the impact we expect is now a top operational priority. This includes the ongoing roll-out of locality hubs as part of our integrated model of care linking short-term delivery priorities with longer-term future service development.
Integrated Care
Development of our integrated care model for Birmingham and Solihull continues. Through the Community Care Collaborative and locality partnerships, we are working actively with partners to launch six locality hubs and to roll out the next wave of integrated neighbourhood teams.
Our work has gained a lot of national attention and two localities (East Birmingham and Solihull) are to be included in the first wave of the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme. We also continue to work with Collaborative partners to re-think its role in the new system architecture and intend to share proposals with our Collaborative Committee at its meeting in November.
National Oversight Framework
Although we expected our rating to worsen under the new NHS Oversight Framework, we were very disappointed to be 61st out of 61 in the rankings for community and mental health trusts. This was driven by a small number of indicators where we were aware our performance was poor relative to our peers and which were already identified as objectives for improvement in our Annual Plan for 2025/6.
These indicators comprise our proportion of waiting times over 52 weeks, driven by backlogs for Autism and ADHD assessments for children and young people; sickness absence rates; NHS Staff Survey measures relating to confidence in Freedom to Speak Up arrangements; and our financial position at the end June. We are identifying additional actions to accelerate improvement in each of these areas. Ratings are to be published quarterly in future and we are committed to improving our performance in the second half of this year.
A lot to report on, as ever, particularly at this time of year when winter resilience is uppermost in our operational planning. Alongside partners across our integrated care system, playing a full and impactful role in easing the pressure on acute and emergency services and delivering our Urgent and Emergency Care and Winter Plan is our top priority.
Best wishes,
Richard