The hospital was founded by Thomas Pretious Heslop as the Birmingham and Midland Free Hospital for Sick Children at 138–9 Steelhouse Lane in 1862.[1] It moved to a new site on Ladywood Middleway in 1917.[2]
In 2007, a new extension designed by RPS Group was opened. The extension created a burns unit, one of three such centres of excellence in the country. As well as this, it established an outpatients department, a neonatal ward, a burns operating theatre, as well as additional classrooms for the Education Centre, allowing children to continue their education whilst undergoing medium to long-term care in the hospital.[4]
The trust led a consortium of organisations called Forward Thinking Birmingham commissioned to provide mental health services for young people in the city up to the age of 25 from April 2016. Services for adults were previously provided by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.[5]
In 1970, surgeons completed the first separation of conjoined twins at the hospital.[6]
The trust was named by the Health Service Journal as one of the top hundred NHS trusts to work for in 2015. At that time it had 3236 full-time equivalent staff and a sickness absence rate of 3.39%. 89% of staff recommend it as a place for treatment and 74% recommended it as a place to work.[9]
The Trust's Professor Anita Macdonald, Consultant Paediatric Dietitian was awarded an OBE for services to Dietetics in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2015.[10]
In 2016, it became the first children's hospital to be rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission.[11]