Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 3 March

March 3, 2023

As we move towards the opening of our new hospital next year it is a time to act and be seen as the vibrant and progressive Trust we are. Essential to doing this is for all colleagues to unite behind our new branding based on our three objectives – Patients – People – Population, underpinned by our three Trust Values – Ambition – Respect – Compassion.

The first step to doing this is to ensure you update your branded templates and embrace the new ones our colleagues in medical illustration have designed.

You’ll have seen a link to a shared online resource in the comms bulletin – access here – click on the first link titled Medical Illustration Resources. This is where you can easily find and use approved templates for everything from your email signature to PowerPoint templates and even current posters. The resource is updated as new content is approved, so the rule of thumb is that anything held here is good to use and must replace all other, out of date branding such as ‘Where Everyone Matters’ and ‘Nine Care Promises’. If you are looking for a template that is not currently online, please contact the communications team on  swbh.comms@nhs.net or the medical illustration team on  swbh.miprint@nhs.net

Please do not be tempted to design your own hybrid designs as that can impact the value of our brand. To be clear, the only design work that should be underway must be routed through our medical illustration team. This is to ensure we comply with NHS brand rules. With the advent of design programmes across many social media platforms and apps it can be easy to consider self-design as a shortcut to producing artwork, however it is not appropriate or acceptable to risk damaging our image in this way.

We are currently looking at our recruitment ambition branding which is being updated and will be added in the coming months, if you have a need for this material in the meantime, please contact medical illustration for advice.

There is a programme of work to replace branding on the major poster sites across the Trust, including the wall on entrance to Sandwell, the front of the BTC and glass balustrading inside. Obviously, all our new posters and designed material will adopt the same brand to ensure a uniform look and feel. And on this point, I would like to reiterate that fly posting of posters is strictly prohibited across all our sites. There is nothing more off putting and unwelcoming to visitors to our sites to be greeted with a motley display of disparate and aging posters of indeterminate origin and it is one of the quickest ways for visitors to form a negative snap judgement of the services we provide. We must have more pride in our environment and notwithstanding the fact that in some cases we are operating out of an aging estate, we all have a part to play in ensuring our immediate surroundings are kept tidy.

If you have a need to advertise a Trust event, please contact the communications team swbh.comms@nhs.net for advice. The old, locked noticeboards which have very obviously out of date information will be removed as part of our rebranding ‘smarten up’ initiative, so if you are currently the ‘owner’ of one of these poster sites please let the comms team know so you can discuss maintenance of your information. If you are responsible for a board that is currently displaying out of date information, please put in a system to keep the information current. The sites that are marked for removal will be ticketed with advice of what is planned, so please ensure you act now to ensure no misunderstandings.

My apologies if some of this messaging is blunt.  However, as initially superficial and unimportant as this may seem now, good, consistent adoption of our new branding will help us in the long run.  The best healthcare institutions do this.  We aspire to be in that category.  Help us to achieve that aim.

Have a good week