Chief executive update

April 2026

Welcome to this month's update, the first of a new financial year. As ever, on behalf of the whole leadership team, I'd like to thank everyone across Team BCHC for their hard work throughout 2025/26.

That commitment enabled us to maintain safe service delivery throughout this month's six-day period of industrial action by resident doctors and to support partners by maintaining services that avoid admission to hospital and support early discharge.

Before reflecting on some of our current challenges and priorities, I would like to offer public congratulations to Meagan Fernandes on her appointment as our Chief People Officer following the retirement of David Holmes. Meagan is currently Director of People and Organisational Development at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust. We look forward to welcoming Meagan when she starts with us later in the year.

I would also like to this opportunity to record my thanks to the BCHC Charity, which last month celebrated 10 years of fundraising to support clinical teams and enhance service users' experience in our care.

 

Future Operating Model

A few months ago, we launched our Future Operating Model programme to work with colleagues and partners to set out how we become a more locality-based organisation, support colleagues through a culture based consistently on our values and ensure we can be as productive and efficient as possible. We want to refresh our approach to set us up well for the next three to five years as we deliver our Medium Term Plan. 

Based on contributions from colleagues through a series of workshops, we have finalised a set of design principles and constraints and a way of working to develop the new model. The next stage is to finalise a blueprint for an organisational structure to support the Future Operating Model at the end of April.

That work sits alongside the wider implementation of our Medium-Term Plan, which commits us to continue to develop integrated care and neighbourhood health services, to work to improve our services for children and young people and requires the delivery of £30m of savings over the next three financial years - £14m in 2026/7. Working with divisional leadership teams to identify a route to deliver the full savings target by the end of April and to have finalised plans by the end of May are a priority for the Trust leadership team.

 

Delivering Neighbourhood Health, supporting all our communities

In the work of the Birmingham and Solihull Community Care Collaborative, which BCHC leads, all five Birmingham locality hubs were mobilised before Christmas and there are now 13 integrated neighbourhood teams (INTs) live, with three more set to launch soon.

We have also continued the next phase of intermediate care development, including preparing our inpatient Care Centres in East and North Birmingham for the new model.

Our team in the East locality who are part of the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP) continue to develop a frailty hub at Hodge Hill Health Centre and the redevelopment of Sutton Cottage Hospital continues, with operational opening now expected in June.

We were pleased that two Birmingham based facilities (Stockland Green and Summerfield Primary Care Centres) were included in the first wave of 27 Neighbourhood Health Centres recently announced by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) .

Our first integrated neighbourhood team specifically for children and young people was due to go live this month in Hodge Hill , with the aim of supporting children with long-term conditions to stay well in the community. We are also continuing to prepare for Birmingham City Council's re-tendering of the Birmingham Forward Steps and school nursing contracts as an integrated 0-19 years service model.

I have reported previously that excessive waiting times for Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) assessments for children and young people present a significant quality and safety risk and a priority for action. We are accelerating assessment of the longest waiting cases and progressing redesign of our neurodevelopmental pathways to a “needs-led” approach. Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) has earmarked financial resource and we look forward to confirmation of the planned investment.

Our work to become a more digitally enabled organisation continues. More than 23,000 patients have now signed up to our new Patient Portal as a way of accessing forms, information and appointment data and our musculoskeletal service is now testing it as a means of capturing patient-reported outcome and experience measures.

 

Making BCHC a Great Place to Work

Our results in the recently published national 2025 NHS Staff Survey results showed another year of steady improvement. It was pleasing that our responses were generally above the national average and that, although we remain below the average for our community trust peer group, we have moved closer to our peers this year. Our 63 per cent response rate was above the NHS and community trust averages, as well as being a record for us.

Our response will build on actions started last year and focus on Trust-wide priorities around, in particular, colleague engagement and support. The need to accelerate improvement in this area is an important driver for the Future Operating Model work, which needs to support a wider culture change as well as more locality-based organisational structure.

 

As ever, a lot going on. I hope this update has been helpful; if there is anything you would like to raise or discuss, please send me an email at richard.kirby@nhs.net