Exclusive: Three trusts set to merge by October

Birmingham Community Healthcare Foundation Trust has confirmed that it is set to form a single organisation with Black Country Partnership FT and Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Trust by October.

HSJ has previously reported that Birmingham Community and the Black Country Partnership intended to integrate following the appointment of Tracy Taylor as joint chief executive last June.

The trusts have now confirmed that Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Trust will also join the merger, creating a provider with an annual turnover of around £440m – making it the third biggest mental health trust in England.

Birmingham Community confirmed Ms Taylor will be chief executive of the new organisation. The trust’s current board will also be the new provider’s top team.

The three trusts have been working on the Transformation Care Together project since 2015, focusing on ways the three trusts can integrate out of hospital care across physical and mental health.

As part of plans, made by Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group, Dudley and Walsall is set to lose 50 per cent of its services following the procurement of a multispecialty community provider for the area.

A spokesman for Birmingham Community said: “The new organisation would naturally be interested in all opportunities and would plan to work to the procurement process established by the Dudley MCP.”

Ms Taylor told staff today: “We are pleased to confirm that each of the boards of the three trusts involved in the Transforming Care Together partnership have approved the full business case for formal integration.

“This means that the three trusts – Birmingham Community Healthcare FT, Black Country Partnership FT and Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership Trust – will now be working together with our regulator NHS Improvement to progress our integration plan, to form one organisation from 1 October 2017.

“The three trusts have been working actively together to plan integration through the past 18 months and have identified significant benefits from integrating together. We will be able to combine to deliver care in more joined up ways, in line with what people need from the modern NHS…We can be stronger together as one.

“This is an exciting opportunity for our trusts and all involved to help shape an organisation at the forefront of physical and mental health services in the modern NHS.”