Public sector jobs in Sandwell

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust is the main NHS employer in Sandwell, and its name explains the catch: it also serves north-west Birmingham, so some of its sites are across the boundary. It describes itself as an integrated care organisation responsible, with the integrated care boards, for 530,000 people across north-west Birmingham and all the towns in Sandwell. Sandwell Council, the schools and the West Midlands emergency services employ most of the rest. NHS pay starts at £25,272 on band 2 from April 2026.

Where the trust’s jobs are based

The trust works from several sites, and which one is named on the advert affects your journey. The Midland Metropolitan University Hospital is the new hospital on Grove Lane in Smethwick. City Health Campus on Dudley Road is in Birmingham and was formerly City Hospital. Sandwell Health Campus in West Bromwich was formerly Sandwell Hospital. The trust also has an intermediate care hub at Rowley Regis and runs the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, the Pan-Birmingham Gynae-Cancer Centre, a sickle cell and thalassaemia centre and the regional base for the National Poisons Information Service.

Community staff deliver integrated services in GP practices and in patients’ homes across Sandwell. A community nursing job and a ward job may share a title and band, but they involve very different weeks. Read the advert’s location and working pattern closely.

NHS pay in 2026/27

The trust pays Agenda for Change rates for England. From 1 April 2026, band 4 runs from £28,392 to £31,157, band 5 from £32,073 to £39,043 and band 6 from £39,959 to £48,117. The band 5 guide explains how nurses and other newly qualified staff move through the two steps in that band.

The High Cost Area Supplement applies in London and the fringe only, so a Birmingham site pays the same as one in Sandwell. Staff join the NHS Pension Scheme. Contributions in 2026/27 are 8.3% on pensionable pay of £28,855 to £35,155 and 9.8% on £35,156 to £52,778. Use the take-home pay calculator to see what a given band leaves after deductions.

Sandwell Council

Sandwell is a metropolitan district, which makes the council responsible for adult and children’s social care, education support, housing, highways and waste across the borough. Pay is on the NJC spine from SCP 3 (£25,614) from 1 April 2026, and staff join the Local Government Pension Scheme. Current vacancies and benefits are on the council’s jobs page.

Schools

Sandwell has maintained schools and academies. Teachers outside London start on £34,069 (M1) from 1 September 2026. The government has accepted the award, and the pay document was published on GOV.UK on 16 October 2026, so maintained schools apply it from 1 September 2026, backdated where needed. Support staff are paid on the NJC spine, pro rata and usually in term time only.

Police, fire and ambulance

Sandwell is in the West Midlands police area, so West Midlands Police is the local force, and a constable starts on £32,255 from 1 September 2026. West Midlands Fire Service lists Sandwell among the seven authorities it serves. Firefighters earn £31,539 in development and £40,358 when competent, from 1 July 2026. West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of six million across the West Midlands.

Next door

Because the NHS trust straddles the border, many applicants search both areas at once. Public sector jobs in Birmingham covers the city’s other trusts and council, and public sector jobs in Wolverhampton covers the other side of the Black Country.