Assistant Chaplain/Assistant Pastoral Support Worker

Merseycare; Melling Mount; On-site; GBP 29,000 - 37,000; Full time

Job summary

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is looking for a Band 5 Chaplain to provide pastoral and spiritual care. This role involves collaboration with staff and service users to enhance religious and non-religious support. Ideal candidates will have a degree level education and relevant experience in spiritual care, committed to working in a multi-faith environment.

Qualifications

• Experience of working within a team in a healthcare setting.
• Knowledge of current issues relevant to mental health.
• Ability and willingness to work in an ecumenical and multi-faith team.

Responsibilities

• Provide pastoral and spiritual care to service users.
• Work collaboratively with mental health professionals.
• Support team’s work around quality and innovation.

Skills

Strong interpersonal skills

Excellent communication skills

Education

Degree level or equivalent experience in a relevant area

Counselling Qualification

Job description

Band 5

Main area Chaplaincy Grade Band 5 Contract Bank: 12 months Hours Flexible working - 0 hours per week (As and when required) Job ref 350-BANK7245075

Site Ashworth Hospital Town Maghull Salary £29,970 - £36,483 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 30/06/2025 23:59

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.

We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Job overview

The Spiritual and Pastoral Care Team provides religious, spiritual and non-religious pastoral care to service users, carers and staff throughout Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.

This innovative team is led by the Director of Social Health & Community Inclusion with Senior and Co-ordinating Chaplains managing the provision within their service areas, supported by Chaplains/Pastoral Support Workers and in some areas religious & non-religious Volunteers.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will have responsibility for providing pastoral and spiritual or religious care as required, and where appropriate offering, or referring service users to faith-based ministry and worship or to appropriate non-religious care and support networks. The post holder will work in collaboration with other members of the team, mental health professionals, local faith representatives and professional visitors to provide or enable the provision of appropriate religious, spiritual & pastoral care to people of all faith and those of no religion or belief. They will be expected to support the team’s work around quality and innovation.

The Spiritual and Pastoral Care Team currently has sufficient Christian and Muslim representation. In this instance we encourage applications from Buddhist, Jewish, Pagan, Humanist and other multifaith candidates.

Working for our organisation

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 11 million people.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Applicants must be either:-

An established and active member of any recognised faith tradition They must be experienced in spiritual and pastoral care, of “good standing” in their tradition in accordance with the Practical Guide – Endorsement of NHS Pastoral, Spiritual and Religious (Chaplaincy) Staff and Volunteers and formally accredited to lead worship within their tradition.

OR

An experienced Pastoral Support Worker, accredited, or with the ability to be accredited, as a member in good standing by the Non-Religious Pastoral Support Network in accordance with the Practical Guide – Endorsement of NHS Pastoral, Spiritual and Religious (Chaplaincy) Staff and Volunteers with a cohesive naturalistic and non-religious system of values and beliefs that are serious, genuinely and sincerely held and worthy of respect in a democratic society.

Knowledge and awareness of professional boundaries is essential. Applicants will be flexible and imaginative innovators capable of implementing new ideas and practices for enhancing spiritual, religious and non-religious care in mental health settings.

All candidates must have excellent communication skills both verbal and written and a good standard of IT capability. All candidates must be committed to working in a multi-faith and belief, ecumenical and inter-disciplinary context.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Degree level or equivalent experience in a relevant area.
• Evidence of on-going professional development.
• Other professional education
• Counselling Qualification

Knowledge

• Knowledge of current issues relevant to mental health
• A person capable of being approved for ministry by a Recognised Faith Tradition e.g, for Christians a member church of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland OR a person capable of being accredited as a pastoral support worker through the Non-Religious Support Network
• Knowledge of recovery approaches within mental health.
• Knowledge of co-production principles.
• Knowledge of the dynamics of team working within a chaplaincy setting

Experience

• Experience of working within a team
• Demonstrable pastoral experience in a healthcare setting
• Mental Health/Learning Disability/Addictions experience
• Experience of working within a therapeutic setting
• Experience of managing change
• Experience of multi-disciplinary working

Values

• Accountability
• Support
• High professional standards
• Responsive to service users
• Engaging leadership style
• Transparency and honesty
• Discreet
• Change oriented
• Active member of their faith community, taking responsibility for their spiritual growth and renewal OR an active member of an organisation that has non-religious beliefs that are serious, genuinely and sincerely held and worthy of respect in a democratic society (eg Humanists UK).

Skills

• Strong interpersonal skills
• Ability to understand boundaries surrounding professional roles
• Ability and willingness to work in an ecumenical and multi-faith team

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. All information regarding your application will come from apps.trac.jobs not NHS Jobs.

Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust’s guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.

Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please email [e-mail] to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.

We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration. Trans applicants who require a DBS check and do not want to reveal details of their previous identity can contact the DBS Sensitive Applications Team (01516761452 or email [e-mail] ) with their application number once they have completed their DBS application form. The team can prevent any previous identity showing on the DBS Certificate, unless the applicant has a conviction under their previous details in which case this will need to be disclosed.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Please be advised that the use of Artificial Intelligence on applications is monitored and if you choose to use this, you must declare this on your application form.

Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

FULFIL YOUR POTENTIAL AND SPREAD YOUR WINGS WITH MERSEY CARE

At Mersey Care, our commitment to ‘perfect care’ lies at the heart of everything we do, a person centred care that starts with you. It’s a pledge to create an environment and staff support that will enable you to do the best job you can possibly do, to be the best you can possibly be.

You’ll be joining one of the most innovative and progressive NHS trusts in the country. One that offers specialist inpatient and community services to support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. We are the founding member of the Zero Suicide Alliance, and one of only three Trusts in the country which delivers high secure mental health care.

You’ll be made to feel at home, joining an 11,000 strong Mersey Care family comprising doctors and nurses, as well as countless other roles from dieticians to dentists, from data analysts to physiotherapists. You'll find a full list of our roles in our A-Z list.

You’ll have a home in the North West of England where your work/life balance is respected and working from sites easily commutable from Liverpool, Manchester, North Wales and Cheshire with many roles operating a hybrid working system.