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Office of the West MidlandS – 
a partnership of West Midlands Integrated Care Boards

The six ICBs in the West Midlands are collaborating to establish an Office of the West Midlands. We have jointly agreed that Birmingham and Solihull ICB will be the host for staff performing these functions for the West Midlands, with responsibility from 1 April 2023 and staff transferring from July 2023.   From April 2024 Birmingham and Solihull ICB will also be the host for the team supporting all eleven ICBs in the Midlands in relation to a commissioning portfolio of delegated specialised services.

 

Vision for the Office of the West Midlands  

Through at scale collaboration and distributive leadership the Office of WM will add value and benefit to a shared set of common goals and priorities for West Midlands citizens and patients.

 

Core purposes of the Office of the West Midlands  

  • To commission a set of agreed functions at a West Midlands level on behalf of six ICBs through shared leadership and joint decision making;
  • To identify shared priorities and goals, and clear projects and work programmes to deliver them; 
  • To bring together in a single host ICB the shared teams and staff supporting the Office of the West Midlands and their ICBs;
  • To develop distributive leadership and expertise across an agreed range of functions/teams for the benefit of all ICBs;
  • To provide a single coherent voice for the West Midlands ICBs where appropriate/a single point of contact/shared voice for change;
  •  To share learning and support improvement across the ICBs; 
  • To achieve best value and efficiency by working at scale where appropriate.

 

The areas that the ICBs have jointly identified for collaborative working in year one are:

  • To manage the mobilisation and commissioning of delegated functions from NHS England  with regard to direct commissioning i.e. pharmacy, optometry and dentistry from 2023, and a subset of specialised services from 2024.
  • To agree a West Midlands work programme for the ICBs through which working together would add value and benefit for the population and the systems.
  • To jointly consider other functions and services that NHS England may be reviewing for either delegation or transfer of hosting responsibility as part of their future design.

 

The Office of the West Midlands will be a servant of the six ICBs working to a distributed leadership model with each ICB taking a lead on defined annual programme of joint work.  Our agreed joint programmes of work and leads are as follows:

  • Delegated functions – Simon Trickett, Hereford and Worcester ICB
  • Operating Model Development Collaboratives – Phil Johns, Coventry and Warwickshire ICB
  • Integrated Staff Hub/Office of the West Midlands hosting specialised commissioning – David Melbourne, Birmingham and Solihull ICB
  • Commissioning Support Unit review – Simon Whitehouse, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB
  • 111/999 and closer working with West Midlands Combined Authority – Mark Axcell, Black Country ICB
  • Immunisations and Vaccinations – Peter Axon, Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent ICB

 

To find out more contact office.westmidlands@nhs.net