Birmingham City Council assessment

How we assess local authorities

Assessment start date: 11 May 2023

Assessment published: 17 November 2023

Assessing how local authorities meet their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act (2014) is a new responsibility for CQC. We have been piloting our approach to these new assessments in 5 local authorities who volunteered to participate. Our assessment of Birmingham City Council was part of the pilots. We will be incorporating any learning from the pilots and evaluation into our formal assessment approach.

About Birmingham City Council

Demographics

Birmingham City Council (BCC) is the largest local authority in the country by population with over 1.1 million people living in the city. It is an ethnically diverse city with 51.4% of its population identifying as ethnic minorities, making Birmingham one of the first ‘super-diverse’ cities in the UK. Birmingham is one of the youngest cities in Europe and nearly half the population is under 30 years old. Over the last decade, the population of the city has increased by 6.7%, which is higher than the overall increase for England (6.6%). While Birmingham is considered one of the youngest Cities in Europe, the older population is growing rapidly too. There has been an increase of 8.9% in people aged 65 and over, and an increase of 7.1% in people aged 15 to 64.

Birmingham City Council comprises 101 councillors. The Labour Party currently has most councillors and runs the local authority. The current number of councillors in each of the political parties are as follows: Conservative 22 councillors, Green 2 councillors, Labour 65 councillors, Liberal Democrat 12 councillors.

Birmingham’s health and social care organisations use a locality model to deliver services across the city. Birmingham has 5 localities each made up of 2 constituencies. These are:

• Central: Hall Green and Selly Oak constituencies
• East: Hodge Hill and Yardley constituencies
• North: Erdington and Sutton Coldfield constituencies
• South: Edgbaston and Northfield constituencies
• West: Ladywood and Perry Barr constituencies.

Birmingham experiences elevated levels of deprivation, with 43% of the population living in the 10% most deprived localities in England, and 51% of children (under 16) living in the 10% most deprived areas. Using the rank of average scores measure, Birmingham is ranked the 7th most deprived local authority in England. The city is also the most deprived authority in the West Midlands Metropolitan area and is ranked the third most deprived English core city.

Financial facts

• The local authority estimated that in 2021/22, its total budget would be £1,847,287,000. Its actual spend for that year was £1,893,860,000, which was £46,573,000 more than estimated. Note that for 2022/23, Birmingham did not submit its actual spend in time for publication.
• The local authority estimated that it would spend £350,828,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2021/22. Its actual spend was £331,951,000, which is £18,877,000 less than estimated. Note that for 2022/23, Birmingham did not submit its actual spend in time for publication.
• In 2021/2022, 18% of the budget was spent on adult social care.
• The local authority has raised the full adult social care precept for 2022/23 and 2023/24. Please note that the amount raised through adult social care precept from local authority to local authority.
• Approximately 15,275 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 4,025 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2022/23. Local authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including supporting individuals. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration, and cost.

This data is reproduced at the request of the Department of Health and Social Care. It has not been factored into our assessment and is presented for information purposes only.