Your City & Metropolitan Hospitals Charity is the independent registered charity of Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust (SWB), incorporating our hospital sites at City, Rowley Regis, Sandwell and the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, our GP sites and partners. Below you can find a variety of information about the charity.
Find the Charity’s annual reports by going to: www.swbh.nhs.uk/our-trust/publications/publications-2023/
Our Mission
“To enhance the experience of everyone using our hospitals and healthcare services. Our vision is to have improved life chances and better health outcomes in our communities and care systems.”
Fundraising
Your City and Metropolitan Hospitals works with undoubted determination to help our community of more than 530,000 patients and 8,000 staff. We are extremely grateful for the overwhelming support we receive from our donors, supporters and colleagues. Our work is more important than ever, and we need the support of our community to help us transform lives.
Below you can find out some of the ways we, the staff at SWB and those in the community have raised money. You can let us know about your ideas for fundraising here.
This is Monica's Story
In early 2020 Monica was rushed to A&E after collapsing in her home. Both Monica and her
husband were completely unaware of what lay ahead on her long trip to recovery. Little did she know that she had been struck down with a severe case of COVID 19, but much to her families relief, Monica managed to battle her way back to health with the incredible support from Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS staff.
Speaking via video message, Monica explained: “I don’t remember going to City hospital, I don’t remember anything at all. I woke up about 9 weeks later in the Intensive Care Unit.
I know that I had around-the-clock care with two 12-hour shifts of doctors and nurses coming and going. There was nothing that was too much for the doctors, the nurses, and the staff.”
She continued to say: “I always had the sense that the doctors and nurses loved me in a very concrete and good sense. They were always kind and gentle.”
Monica kindly donated some funds to the trust for the remarkable care that she received.
She said: “I think the bottom line is that I wanted to say thank you. Being in hospital and the care I received, it’s something I’ll never forget. I would want everybody to have the care that I had and wouldn’t want people not to have the care because there is no money for the resources.”
Partnership with Starbucks
In early 2022 Starbucks became a charity partner for Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust Charity. Through the kind efforts of NHS Charities Together…
Our partnership with Starbucks embodies Starbucks’ mission to “inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time”.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS staff would handwrite their names on PPE masks, just as Starbucks handwrite their customers names on cups. These scenes struck a chord with Starbucks, inspiring an extremely generous donation of food, drinks and funds to support the wellbeing of frontline workers. Our partnership has continued and supports NHS staff through the ‘free tall beverage’ and ‘gifts that give back’ campaign, along with various other fundraising and thank you initiatives.
Together, we’re working with Starbucks and the UK’s NHS charities to strengthen connections at a local level to make a real difference in communities.
Our partnership has grown from strength to strength and continues to take a stronger community focus.
You can show your support by sponsoring the team here.
WBA Team Christmas Children’s Ward Visit
Albion players embarked on a Christmas mission to bring festive cheer to the children’s ward at Sandwell General Hospital on Monday afternoon.
Dara O’Shea, Jed Wallace, Jake Livermore and Conor Townsend all spent time chatting with youngsters and their families, as well as hospital staff.
There were special surprises for the children too, who all received an early Christmas gift from the Albion quartet.
Dara said: “I’ve been told the club have been doing Christmas visits at the hospital for at least 90 years. I think it’s a fantastic thing to do and to be a part of.
“It’s so easy to get caught up in Christmas and I think it’s really important to stop and think about those who aren’t as fortunate and those who’ll be having a different type of Christmas time.
“It’s humbling to be here. As a father, it’s hard to imagine what these families are going through, especially at Christmas.
“We’ve met some wonderful children, parents, guardians and hospital staff workers today. It was a pleasure to meet them all and hear their stories.
Smiles all round
“Seeing the smiles on their faces when we arrived on the ward and when we handed out presents was, again, really humbling.
Dr Nick Makwana, consultant paediatrician at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, said: “It’s always a pleasure to welcome the Albion players to our hospital, especially at Christmas.
“It’s been really heart-warming to see how happy it makes our young patients. No one likes being in hospital, especially at this time of year and it really has brought so much joy to the children.
“It’s very kind that the footballers take time out of their busy schedule to bring in gifts and chat to them.”
How you can get involved
If you would like to help a single or regular donation will support us to provide the best possible environment to support our staff, patients and their families. Regular gifts allow us to plan ahead for new projects, research or equipment to ensure we continue providing the best care.
Our Objectives
We exist to achieve the following four key objectives:
1. Patients
- To demonstrate high quality impact through charity projects that care for our patients.
2. People
- To ensure we support the ongoing health, wellbeing and development of our people.
3. Population
- To address health inequalities outside of our hospital walls and with our population.
4. Partners
- To be an anchor institution for health, social care, and other charities as our partnersYou can find out more about the various projects the charity has been involved in Our Impact.
Legal Duties
The Charity Trustee Board is responsible for the overall management of the charitable funds. As defined in our updated Charitable Funds Policy, the duties of the trustees are to:
- Act in the best interests of the Charity
- Manage the Charity’s resources responsibly, which includes protecting and safeguarding its reputation
- Act with reasonable care and skill
Further details
The Charity Trustee Board are authorised to:
- Investigate any activity within its Terms of Reference. It is authorised to seek any information it requires from any employee, and all employees are directed to co-operate with any request made by the charity Trustee Board
- instruct professional advisors and request the attendance of individuals and authorities from outside of the Charity with relevant experience and expertise if it considers this necessary or expedient to carrying out its functions
- Obtain such internal information as is necessary and expedient to the fulfilment of its functions.
Trustees are legally responsible for the Charity’s fundraising. Operating effective control over the Charity’s fundraising is a vital part of their compliance with legal duties as outlined in the Charity Commission guidance on the trustee duties, set out in ‘The essential trustee: what you need to know, what you need to do (CC3)’.
The trustees have the right to:
- Prevent the withdrawal of funds which do not meet the conditions set out in these guidelines.
- Authorise expenditure from a fund if the trustees believe this to be an appropriate use of resources.
- Cease to delegate their authority to a fund ambassador if they believe that regulations not fulfilled. In this case they may appoint an alternative manager or take control of the fund themselves.
- Amend these guidelines as and when necessary. Amendments will be communicated to all fund ambassadors.
- Authorise investigation of a breach of this policy that may result in the matter being treated as a disciplinary offence under the Charity’s disciplinary procedure.
The accounting records and the day-to-day administration of charitable funds are dealt with by the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust Finance Department which is located in Trinity House on the Sandwell General Hospital Site, Lyndon, West Bromwich, B71 4HJ. The charity has a service-level agreement with the Trust, who levies a charge for providing this administration and which is reviewed on an annual basis.