Background

  • The four trusts in the Black Country, in partnership with the Integrated Care Board and Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, are united in their desire to improve health services through collaboration.
  • The organisations involved include:
    • Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust
    • The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust
    • The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
    • Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
    • NHS Black Country ICB
    • Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
  • Collaboration is the only way we will be able to tackle the very significant challenges we are all facing around quality, workforce and finances; no one organisation can do this alone.
  • This is about making improvements across the whole of the Black Country system to benefit all of our communities.
  • As part of this, we have a joint vision for more collaborative corporate services. Central services are non-clinical services and include HR and OD, procurement, strategy, communications, digital, finance, and legal and governance.
  • The aim is to ensure our corporate services support better patient care and offer our colleagues a great place to work. We also want to remove unnecessary duplication so that our limited funding is put to the best possible use and is directed to the front line wherever possible.
  • Our corporate services leaders and staff side (trade unions) partners will be participating in a series of workshops and on-going engagement activities from the 18th October to start thinking together about the opportunities for transformation.
  • Functions will be asked to consider how to improve their service through collaboration while also removing unnecessary waste and duplication.
  • Examples of work may include:
    • Standardising systems, processes and policies, e.g. digital systems such as EPR; HR policies; financial reporting systems
    • Doing things ‘once’ where it makes sense, e.g. our developing collaborative bank; the winter communications campaign; procurement
    • Teams working ‘at scale’ on behalf of the other organisations in the system, e.g. procurement; communications
  • In the meantime, work is ongoing to determine how corporate services might be brought more closely together and what additional benefits and synergies this closer collaboration can bring.