Sands’ Board of Trustees is responsible for the governance and strategic direction of Sands, and it also holds legal liability. This means that the Board:

• Defines Sands’ long-term direction – furthering its objects or purposes as set out in the Articles of Association (our governing document)
• Makes sure that Sands is effectively and properly run with legal and other obligations met

Roles and Responsibilities

To enable them to carry out these overarching aims Sands’ Board of Trustees has some key roles and responsibilities, these include:

• Furthering Sands’ overall purpose, as set out in the Articles of Association (our governing document) and setting the charity’s direction and strategy.
• Making sure the work of Sands is effective, responsible, and legal.
• Safeguarding people involved with the charity as well as finances, resources and property and making sure they’re all used to further Sands’ purposes.
• Being ‘accountable’ to those with an interest or stake in or who regulate the charity.
• Being clear about setting up and respecting boundaries between the governance role of the board and operational or day-to-day matters.

As part of making sure the board operates effectively it takes account of good practice, as outlined in the Charity Governance Code.

Ways of working

Most of the Board’s work takes place at board meetings where the trustees make key decisions and monitor the charity’s activities. There are four full Board meetings each year – to allow for quarterly review and discussion, some of these meetings are face-to-face, and some are now held online.

In addition to the Board meetings there are two Sub Committees that also meet quarterly and report back to the full Board. These are:

• Finance Audit and Risk Sub Committee
• Governance Sub Committee

There is also a Premises Sub Committee that meets as required and a Research Working Group that brings together the relevant expertise on the Board to support the work of staff and volunteers.

In addition to the Board Sub Committees, Sands has a Nominations Committee whose role is to assist the Board in identifying suitable individuals to act as Trustees of the Charity.  The Nominations Committee enables Sands to ensure that trustees have the skills, expertise and knowledge needed, as well as ensuring that the Board is diverse and represents the Sands community.

Sands’ governance structure is illustrated below.

Sands’ Articles of Association form its governing document and set out the charitable purposes and how Sands should be managed and run.

Sands’ purposes or objects are:

1. to promote the emotional, psychological and physical well-being of parents, their families and friends, when a baby dies in utero, at birth or soon after birth, by

• the provision of support and information to those so bereaved and their carers
• working collaboratively with health and social care professionals to improve and enhance professional practice with bereaved parents

2. to promote research and the implementation of best practice that will help identify the cases and reduce the incidence of the death of a baby in utero, at birth or soon after birth, and to publish the results of such research.

Download our Articles of Association as a PDF.

Charity Commission

The Charity Commission regulates registered charities in England and Wales.  Charities are required to register with the Charity Commission if they have an annual income of over £5,000.

You can find details of Sands’ registration on the Charity Commission website.

Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR)

OSCR is the independent regulator and registrar for Scotland’s charities.

You can find details of Sands’ registration with OSCR on their website.

Charities are required to submit Annual Returns and Accounts to the regulators and Sands also publishes these on its website.