What's New Bulletin 257 - 17 July 2025
This is edition 257 of the provider bulletin, containing information on guidance, procedures and new initiatives. Very urgent or high priority communications may still be issued on an ad hoc basis, but we will try to keep these to a minimum
1. REMINDER Care Homes Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – July 2025 – DEADLINE 22 July 2025 (Information for all Birmingham and Contracted Care Homes)
2. REMINDER Home Support and Supported Living Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – (Information for all Providers Holding the Home Support 2024 and Supported Living 2023 Contracts)
3. REMINDER Birmingham City Council - Ensuring Your Current Insurance Documents are Uploaded to the CareMatch Portal (Information for all Birmingham City Council Contracted Providers)
4. Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Learning Disability and Autism Provider Collaborative - Risk Alert (Information for all Providers)
5. REMINDER Changes to Immigration Rules for Adult Social Care Workforce ((Information for all Providers)
6. Community Care Collaborative Update - Connect Newsletter for July 2025 (Information for all Birmingham and Solihull Providers)
7. REMINDER Ensuring Care Plans and Risk Assessments are Attached to Requests for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) Assessments (Information for all Birmingham Contracted Care Homes)
8. REMINDER NHS Birmingham and Solihull (BSOL) Training Hub July 2025 (Information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)
9. REMINDER Clouds End – Free Multi Agency Hoarding Awareness Training July – November 2025 (Information for all Providers)
10. REMINDER Hospices of Birmingham & Solihull (HOBS) - Training Sessions August 2025 (Information for Care Homes with Nursing in Birmingham and Solihull)
1. REMINDER Care Homes Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – July 2025 – DEADLINE 22 July 2025 (Information for all Birmingham and Contracted Care Homes)
Please click this link to access the questionnaire:
The deadline for completion is Tuesday 22 July 2025
This questionnaire is issued quarterly. Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk. Please note that we have removed the question about numbers of staff holding the skilled worker visa, because this information is collected via your Capacity Tracker return.
Completion of the questionnaire is part of the terms of the Care Homes 2023 contract, for contracted providers, but we ask all Birmingham care homes to take part in the process to help us meet our responsibilities to all Birmingham citizens.
Many thanks to staff at the care homes who completed the previous questionnaires. If this did not include your care home, please ensure that you complete this and subsequent editions.
The purpose of the questionnaire is to collect information to assist our market shaping and development role, the production of our Market Position Statements, fulfil our Care Act duties around ensuring a quality and sustainable market, to help us direct resources, identify areas of risk, and monitor progress towards our strategic aims. It has been co-produced with health colleagues to reduce duplication in data collection, and has been streamlined so that we are only collecting information that is not available to us from elsewhere e.g. the Capacity Tracker.
Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk. This includes further information about our approach and how the data we are asking for will be used.
2. REMINDER Home Support and Supported Living Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – (Information for all Providers Holding the Home Support 2024 and Supported Living 2023 Contracts)
If your service hold either or both of the Home Support 2024 and Supported Living 2023 contracts, you are requested to complete and submit this questionnaire by clicking this link:
Home Support and Supported Living MIQ – July 2025
The deadline for completion is Friday 25 July 2025
Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk.
The questionnaire is issued quarterly.
Completion of the questionnaire is part of the terms of the Home Support 2024 and Supported Living 2023 contracts
The purpose of the questionnaire is to collect information to assist our market shaping and development role, the production of our Market Position Statements, fulfil our Care Act duties around ensuring a quality and sustainable market, to help us direct resources, identify areas of risk, and monitor progress towards our strategic aims. It has been co-produced with health colleagues to reduce duplication in data collection, and has been streamlined so that we are only collecting information that is not available to us from elsewhere e.g. the Capacity Tracker.
3. REMINDER Birmingham City Council - Ensuring Your Current Insurance Documents are Uploaded to the CareMatch Portal (Information for all Birmingham City Council Contracted Providers)
It is an important part of your contractual obligations to Birmingham City Council, and a legal requirement, to ensure you have valid insurance at all times. It is important that when you renew your insurance documents you remember to upload a copy to the CareMatch Portal following the instructions in Section 8.8 of the Care Match Portal User Guide:
If you are experiencing technical issues uploading the documents, email market.intelligence@birmingham.gov.uk
Reminder alerts are sent from CareMatch Portal to inform you when your insurance documents were coming up to their expiry date and when they had expired to assist you to remain compliant with your contractual obligations around insurance. To ensure you are receiving these alerts, check your email alerts are switched on (see section 4.5 of the User Guide for how you can check and change user settings).
No evidence of current insurance cover on the CareMatch Portal at the levels required by your contract will be treated as a breach of contract until evidence of cover is provided.
Providers are finding the cost of insurance has risen as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and as such it is important you allow enough time for finding an alternative insurance provider, if needed, before your current insurance expires. Contact your Care Association to see what support and advice they can offer. It is important that you inform you area commissioners if you are having difficulty arranging future cover before the expiry of your current insurance.
Who to contact in the Commissioning Team?
4. Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Learning Disability and Autism Provider Collaborative - Risk Alert (Information for all Providers)
Through the sharing of learning and incident reviews, the Collaborative have received intelligence indicating that, in recent weeks, there have been two incidents where service users ordered household items online with the intent to harm themselves. This highlights an emerging risk that requires increased vigilance. Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk.
5. REMINDER Changes to Immigration Rules for Adult Social Care Workforce ((Information for all Providers)
On the 1 July 2025, the Home Office published a major Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 997), which marks the start of the implementation of the immigration reforms set out in the Government’s Immigration White Paper, published in May 2025. These changes will take effect from 22 July 2025 and include important updates for the adult social care sector, particularly around international recruitment and in-country visa switching. The full documents are available here:
Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 997)
Summary of Key Changes for Adult Social Care
End of Overseas Recruitment
Overseas recruitment into adult social care roles will end on the 22 July 2025. A transition period will remain in place to allow for in-country applications, for those switching from other visa routes, to continue until 22 July 2028.
Transitional Arrangements
During the transition period, individuals already in the UK may still switch into the Health and Care visa route, but only under the following conditions:
They must currently hold a Health and Care visa and have most recently been sponsored under:
SOC 6145 (or 6135 since April 2024): Care workers and home carers, or
SOC 6146 (or 6136 since April 2024): Senior care workers
Alternatively, they must be switching from another visa route and have been legally employed by the care provider sponsor in a relevant role for at least three months at the time of application (e.g. a student working part-time in care)
Ongoing Visa and Settlement Rights
International care workers who are legally sponsored and working in the UK on 22 July 2028 will continue to be eligible to: Extend their visa; Switch sponsors; Apply for settlement (subject to the rules in place at that time). The Government has confirmed that it will consult on settlement rule changes later in 2025.
Changes Effecting the Displaced Worker Pool
Whilst the requirement for care providers to evidence engagement with the regional pool of displaced international care workers has been formally removed, this remains a vital source of information about candidates who are already in the country and available to work in the adult social care sector. For more information about the West Midlands pool of displaced international care workers and associated support please visit:
www.irwestmids.co.uk/hire-sponsored-care-workers
(please note: this web page is in the process of being updated)
6. Community Care Collaborative Update - Connect Newsletter for July 2025 (Information for all Birmingham and Solohull Providers)
The Connect July 2025 newsletter (see link below) about the Community Care Collaborative is now available. This covers all the latest news about the programme that sees Adult Social Care working in partnership with primary care, community health and mental health services, as well as community and voluntary sector to provide better and more joined up care for citizens in their neighbourhoods.
7. REMINDER Ensuring Care Plans and Risk Assessments are Attached to Requests for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) Assessments (Information for all Birmingham Contracted Care Homes)
A request is being made from Birmingham City Councils Social Care Team that providers ensure they attach care plans and risk assessments in every instance when requesting a DoLS assessment via the portal;
Please also ensure you complete all relevant parts of DoLS Forms 1 and 2 with as much information as possible. This will help Birmingham City Council’s DoLS Team to prioritise the referrals and carry out the assessments accordingly.
8. REMINDER NHS Birmingham and Solihull (BSOL) Training Hub July 2025 (Information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)
The Birmingham and Solihull Training Hub Website is for those working in a primary or social care role in the Solihull / Birmingham area. The information is for students looking for support with career development or a visitor wanting to find out more.
Please use this link for training, further information and booking:
Social Care – BSol Training hub
All training events are listed in the calendar section. You can also contact the training hub by email bsol.traininghub@nhs.net.
The next sessions are:
21 July 2025 Introduction to Positive Approaches to Behaviour & Introduction to Safer De-escalation 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
29 July 2025 Medication Management - 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
30 July 2025 Mental Capacity Act Awareness Training - 9:30 am - 12:00 pm
7 August Continuing Healthcare (CHC) Checklists Training (August 2025) - 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
9. REMINDER Clouds End – Free Multi Agency Hoarding Awareness Training July – November 2025 (Information for all Providers)
Free online training for staff on hoarding is available. The full day sessions (10.00am to 4.00pm) cover understanding hoarding and an overview of the C20 project (module 1), supportive engagement techniques (module 2) and supportive interventions for successful multi agency working (module 3). Training days are on:
30 July 2025
24 September 2025
19 November 2025
All sessions are on Zoom
To book, please email help@cloudsend.org.uk stating the date you are interested in, and the meeting link will be shared with you.
10. REMINDER Hospices of Birmingham & Solihull (HOBS) - Training Sessions August 2025 (Information for Care Homes with Nursing in Birmingham and Solihull)
Please see below the upcoming HOBS Online (via Zoom) Training sessions in August 2025, with the booking links included below:
Nausea & Vomiting
Common causes of nausea and vomiting in palliative care patients
Pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions
How to support with the emotional impact of severe symptoms at end of life
Wednesday 20 August 1 Hour (1.00pm - 2.00pm)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1320087740969?aff=oddtdtcreator
Further information about this subject has been circulated to providers. If you don’t have a copy, please emailmarketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk