1.  REMINDER Birmingham City Council - Care Homes Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – July 2026 – DEADLINE 31 July 2026 (Information for all Birmingham and Contracted Care Homes)

2.  REMINDER Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Children's Trust are Moving to a New Finance System and Will not be Making Routine Payments Between 20 July and 18 August 2026 (Information for All Providers with BCC Funded Citizens)

3.  Care Provider Cost Pressure Survey – Deadline 19 August 2026 (All Birmingham Contracted Providers)

4.  Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (BSOL - ICB) Quality Team - Web Page (Information for all Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes) 

5.  NHS England Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) (Information for Birmingham and Solihull Providers)  

6.  REMINDER Birmingham Community Healthcare (BCHC) NHS Foundation Trust - Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) – IPC Champion of Champions Awards 2026 Nominations – DEADLINE 21 August 2026 (Information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)

7.  REMINDER Skills for Care Updates for August 2026 (Information for all Birmingham and Solihull Providers)

8.  REMINDER Birmingham and Solihull Training Hub – Training Dates in August – September 2026 (Information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)

1.  REMINDER Birmingham City Council - Care Homes Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – July 2026 – DEADLINE 31 July 2026 (Information for all Birmingham and Contracted Care Homes)

Please click this link to access the questionnaire:

Care Home MIQ July 2026

The deadline for completion is Friday, 31 July 2026

Please note that a new system is being used to collect the data. This is explained in the attached briefing. Because of the change, three weeks is being allowed for completion on this occasion.

This questionnaire is issued quarterly. Details of the questions are included in the attached briefing a long with how the information we collect is used.

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.

2.  REMINDER Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Children's Trust are Moving to a New Finance System and Will not be Making Routine Payments Between 20 July and 18 August 2026 (Information for All Providers with BCC Funded Citizens)

Home Support and Supported Living Providers paid by invoice

For Home Support and Supported Living Providers that invoice the Council, you should have already submitted your invoices for the period 27/03 and these are currently being processed.

To avoid delays to your payments, it is essential that invoices are submitted as set out below.

Key Submission Dates

Schedule No.	Invoice Period	Invoice to be submitted to BCC by	Payment to be processed by BCC by
27/03	25 May 2026 – 21 June 2026	6 July 2026	1 August 2026
27/04	22 June 2026 – 19 July 2026	3 August 2026	29 August 2026

Action Required

For services provided between 22 June 2026 and 19 July 2026, compliant invoices must be received no later than: 3 August 2026

Send invoices to: Home.Support.Payments.Team@birmingham.gov.uk

Why This Matters

If invoices are submitted late, or are returned due to missing information, payment may be delayed.

Following the finance system migration, payments will resume from 18 August 2026 and will be processed as quickly as possible.

For Care Homes and Supported Living Providers paid by Autopay

For care homes and supported living providers that are paid automatically by the Council, payments for the period 27/05 will be made early in line with the below schedule:

Schedule No.	Invoice Period	PTP Run	Release	BACs Run
27/05	13 July 2026 – 9 August 2026	13 July 2026	17 July 2026	20 July 2026
27/06	10 August 2026 – 6 September 2026	17 August 2026	21 August 2026	24 August 2026

This means for the period 13 July 2026 – 9 August 2026, you should receive cleared funds by no later than 24 July 2026.  There are currently no changes planned for the payment period 27/06 due to be released on 24 August 2026.

You will continue to receive standard payment remittances, however more detailed Care First remittances are currently on a request only basis.  After the 18 August, it is hoped that routine Care First remittances will be provided.

Financial Difficulties During the Transition Period

If, between 20 July and 18 August 2026, you experience financial difficulties that may affect your ability to continue providing care and support, please contact:  marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

Thank you for your cooperation and support during this transition.

3.  Care Provider Cost Pressure Survey – Deadline 19 August 2026 (All Birmingham Contracted Providers)

As part of the Council’s approach to gathering evidence from care providers to inform our 2026 fee uplift proposals, we are seeking a range of feedback and information about last year’s fee increases, current and emerging cost pressures, the impact of the Employment Rights Act, and sustainability risks across the sector.

You are invited to complete a MS Forms based questionnaire and submit this to us by 12.00 midday on Wednesday, 19 August 2026.

N.B. there are two questionnaires, one for care homes and one for home support, supported living and extra care providers. The questionnaires ask the same questions, but please complete the one appropriate to your service provision type. If your service is dual registered, e.g. a care home which also provides home support, you can of course submit two questionnaires if the information you wish to submit is service type specific.

We want to assure you that any information you provide will be viewed by the Council only. Data shall be anonymised, aggregated and analysed. If the Council decides to publish or share any of the data or analysis this will be done on an anonymised basis and no information or comments will be attributed to a specific company, organisation, or individual.

Please see the links to the questionnaires below. Should you have queries in relation to the survey please email costofcare@birmingham.gov.uk

Care homes survey:

Care Home provider cost pressure survey - 2026/27

Home support, Supported Living, and Extra Care survey:

Home Support, Supported Living and Extra Care provider cost pressure survey - 2026/27

4.  Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (BSOL - ICB) Quality Team - Web Page (Information for all Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes): 

BSOL ICB Quality Team Web Page

Which includes information on:

• Falls resources

• Dysphagia and swallowing resources

• Continence resources

• Clinical Learning Alerts  
• Quality improvement resources  

• Best practice information  

If you would like more information about the BSOL Quality Team, please contact nhsbsolicb.qualitychc@nhs.net 

5.  NHS England Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) (Information for Birmingham and Solihull Providers)  

Please note that the NHS England Patient Safety Incident Response Framework will soon be implemented for social care. For further information, please visit the NHS England website and look for the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework section.

NHS England » Patient Safety Incident Response Framework  

NHS Patient Safety Syllabus training - elearning for healthcare

6.  REMINDER Birmingham Community Healthcare (BCHC) NHS Foundation Trust - Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) – IPC Champion of Champions Awards 2026 Nominations – DEADLINE 21 August 2026 (Information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)

IPC Champion of Champions Awards 2026 – Friday, 18 September 2026 - Nominations Now Open until 21 August 2026.

IPC are looking for that person/s who has really taken on the IPC Champion role after completing their IPC Champions Training.

They would like to celebrate excellence and improvement in infection prevention and control (IPC) practice, recognizing new initiatives and champions who consistently promote best IPC standards.

• Nominate a colleague - Do you have an IPC Champion/s colleague who has demonstrated IPC excellence within your care home.
• Nominate yourself - Have you demonstrated IPC excellence within your care home, better still ask your line manager to nominate you

IPC Champions Awards 2026 Information

IPC Champions Awards 2026 Nomination Form

If you have any queries about regarding any of the infection control related events above, please contact the team via bchc.ipcdata1@nhs.net or 0121 466 6550

7.  REMINDER Skills for Care Updates for August 2026 (Information for all Birmingham and Solihull Providers)

Please find attached Skills for Care updates for August 2026.

Headlines include:

• The Training Hub by Skills for Care- NEW courses added
• NEW: Applications now open for the Care Workforce Pathway Care Provider Support Programme
• Birmingham and Solihull Registered Managers Network meeting
• BBCS ICS Social Care & Independent Sector Faculty information
• Skills for Care National and Regional Events in July
• Other Partner News

8.  REMINDER Birmingham and Solihull Training Hub – Training Dates in August – September 2026 (Information for Birmingham and Solihull Care Homes)

Have you visited the Birmingham and Solihull training hub website yet?  You can view information as someone working in a primary or social care role in the Solihull / Birmingham area, as a student looking for support with career development or as a visitor wanting to find out more.

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:

4 August 2026 Infection Prevention & Control – Support to Care Home Team, UHB

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

12 August 2026 Falls – Support to Care Home Team, UHB 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

18 August 2026 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm Introduction to Dementia, Support to Care Home Team, UHB

7 September 2026 Advance Care Planning 9:30 am - 12:30 pm

7 September 2026 Foundations in adult palliative and end of life care – 4-day programme 9:00 am – 4:00 pm 

23 September 2026 9:30 am – 4:00 pm

6 October 2026 9:30 am - 3:00 pm

29 October 2026 12:00 pm - 5:15 pm

7 September 2026 Assessment and Care Planning 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm

7 September 2026 Care in the Dying Phase 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm