Message from Black Country ICS: Black Country NHS Financial Improvement Plans

July 30, 2024

Message on behalf of the Black Country ICS:

Dear colleagues,

We are writing to provide an update on the financial improvement plans for the NHS in the Black Country.

Working within such a complex health and care system inevitably brings with it some challenges. Since the pandemic, the system has seen an increase in demands across acute, community, primary care, mental health and learning disability services as well as more people using our local services from neighbouring systems. Increased staffing numbers and inflation means it is costing us more to run our services.  At the same time, we have a growing population who are living longer with greater need for our services.

Recognising that our budgets faced real pressure we have developed a financial recovery plan. Despite this plan, we still anticipated significant deficits this year for some of our NHS organisations.

We have submitted a plan to NHS England which would see us end the current financial year with a collective NHS deficit position of £119 million.

Given the overall financial position of The Black Country NHS system, NHS England has assessed the system and increased the regulatory support to us through financial undertakings.

In addition, we have agreed with NHS England that we will engage external support to urgently review the financial position and review our financial plans to identify any missed opportunities for further efficiency and productivity.

This proactive support will cover controls over areas such as workforce and will also look carefully at our efficiency plans to make sure that they are deliverable, or to take action where this is not the case.  The support will be expected to show rapid results and should be in place for around 8 weeks.  Any decisions to reduce spending will be subject to routine governance and oversight, to make sure that service delivery, quality and patient safety are not adversely impacted.

Good financial health is key for us to be able to improve the health of the people we serve for the years to come. The NHS in the Black Country performs well and provides high quality care, we welcome the external support and review as an opportunity to see how we can continue to do that and find ways to be more productive and balance our books financially. Whilst we already have a challenging financial recovery plan in place, we are working with system partners and NHSE to continually improve this position.

We know it will take time to get back to a sustainable financial balance and we need to collectively transform how we provide services.

We are asking everyone to support these vital measures towards financial recovery which will put us in a much better place over the coming months