Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHFT) is celebrating national success after winning the Digital Equality, Diversity and Inclusion award at the prestigious HSJ Digital Awards 2026.
Held at the ICC in Birmingham on Tuesday 19 May, the awards recognise the teams and organisations using digital innovation to improve patient care, transform services and deliver more equitable healthcare across the NHS and wider health sector.
BSMHFT received the award for its pioneering Health Inequalities Tracking Dashboard, developed collaboratively by the Trust’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and Informatics teams. The innovative tool provides real-time insight into how communities across Birmingham and Solihull access and experience mental health care.
Built into the systems staff already use every day, the dashboard brings together live service information and local community data to help identify inequalities, understand where support is needed most and respond earlier to people’s needs. The tool is already helping shape important work across the Trust, including anti-racism initiatives, cultural awareness training and the development of 24/7 neighbourhood mental health services.
The HSJ award recognises how the dashboard is helping improve access to mental health support and experiences of care for communities who often face barriers to getting help.
Patrick Nyarumbu MBE, Director of Strategy, People and Partnerships at BSMHFT, said:
“We’re incredibly proud to receive this award and for the recognition it gives to the important work happening across our teams and partnerships every day.
“By using real-time insight alongside compassionate, culturally informed care, we’re working to make mental health services more accessible, inclusive and responsive to the needs of local people.
“This achievement reflects the passion, collaboration and commitment of colleagues and partners who are dedicated to creating fairer mental health services for everyone.”
The HSJ Digital Awards 2026 attracted a record 468 entries, with 201 organisations shortlisted across 25 categories. Winners were selected following a rigorous two-stage judging process involving 98 judges and approximately 177 hours of virtual judging.
Opening the ceremony in Birmingham this week, HSJ editor Alastair McLellan described digital innovation as having “moved to centre stage” across the NHS, praising shortlisted organisations for turning ambitions around digital transformation into “real change”.
This year’s awards recognised excellence across a wide range of areas including digital transformation, patient empowerment, mental health, urgent and emergency care, AI and automation, clinical safety and data and analytics.
For more information about the HSJ Digital Awards, visit: HSJ Digital Awards
Published: 22 May 2026
