West Birmingham
Made up of the Ladywood and Perry Barr constituencies, West Birmingham is an area of great vibrancy and also great deprivation and inequality compared to Birmingham and Solihull, and to England.
We are:
Young
the average age of our ~264,000 residents is 32.9, making us Birmingham’s youngest locality.
Diverse
As long ago as 2011, the Census estimated that 67% of West Birmingham was minority ethnic, with ~40% being Asian, and diversity is increasing. Each of our many communities has differing health and access needs.
Mobile
Of the 110,000 migrants who registered with GPs in the city between 2015 and 2019, 39% (43,500) registered in West Birmingham.
Challenged
More than half (51.2%) of us live in the 10% most deprived decile and 37.5% of West Birmingham’s children live in absolute poverty.
Complex
Many of us require more complex healthcare at an earlier age than the NHS funds for, leaving our GPs underfunded.
Under-resourced
We have fewer GPs per 1000 residents than almost anywhere in England.
But we are also:
Valued
We acknowledge and appreciate the many excellent health professionals and community organisations who dedicate their working hours, and sometimes volunteer time, to keep us as healthy and well as possible.
This means that, within our communities, great healthcare experiences sit alongside great challenges:
- It can be hard to get a GP appointment, especially one at a convenient time. This means it can be hard to access other services that require GP referrals or letters.
- We have a higher infant death rate than the national average.
- Our children experience more preventable issues, such as asthma and obesity.
- Life expectancy is significantly lower for our adults than it is just a few miles away.
By providing a way for our community organisations to work more closely with our local healthcare professionals, we believe we can change these things.
Our vision is to help enable West Birmingham to flourish.
Our Vision
We want Perry Barr and Ladywood to be flourishing communities, where:
- a focus on disease prevention through health education, early intervention and addressing the wider determinants of health results in a fundamentally healthier population
- local people are helped to support and care for each other
- professional help, including excellent health and care services, is accessible to everyone
- residents know how to get the help they need
- life expectancy is good for everyone, from birth onwards
- people from all backgrounds experience wellness at all stages of life
We want a future where our public services:
- actively listen to and work with local people and organisations as equals
- work together
- support each other
We want to:
- create our own momentum, while working collaboratively
- actively help to bring about change in our communities
- be a champion of co-production
- be a loudspeaker for our communities’ voices
- be an equal, valued and ambitious delivery partner for health and social care that really improves people’s lives
Our first priorities are:
- to build trust between third sector organisations and care providers, especially the NHS
- within a challenging landscape, to advocate for and help to bring about successful primary care relationships for all, recognising it as the gateway to many health and social care services
- to support the various areas that contribute to healthy pregnancies, births and early childhoods, such as maternal health and wellbeing, infant feeding and childhood vaccination
- to address issues of specific relevance in our area, namely asthma, diabetes and obesity
- to create a sense of community, mutual support and equal partnership through clear, regular communications and telling people’s stories