Band 6 Chaplain

NHS; London Borough of Enfield; On-site; GBP 46,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a compassionate chaplain to join the Spiritual Care Team. You will provide inclusive spiritual and religious support to patients, families, staff and volunteers across multiple faiths, tailoring care to individual needs.

You will respond to referrals, work with MDTs, and contribute to teaching and staff wellbeing. Flexible hours and on-call duties are part of the role, with emphasis on dignity and holistic care.

Qualifications

• Recognised (ordained/licensed) and in good standing with faith and/or belief community.
• Educated to degree level in theology and ministerial development as per faith and belief tradition.
• Healthcare Chaplaincy PG Cert/Dip/MA or equivalent.
• Counselling qualification.

Responsibilities

• Provide compassionate spiritual and religious care to patients, families, carers, visitors, volunteers, and staff.
• Receive and respond to urgent and non-urgent referrals, coordinating with other chaplains as needed.
• Collaborate with Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Team and maintain clear communication.
• Raise the profile of spiritual care across the Trust through MDTs, ethics committees, and staff networks.
• Provide pastoral and wellbeing support to staff through one-to-one sessions and debriefs.
• Contribute to teaching, training, and educational sessions as required.
• Support pregnancy loss families and lead baby funerals/memorial services where appropriate.
• Oversee multi-faith spaces and participate in 24-hour on-call Chaplaincy service.

Skills

Faith and belief systems

Counselling support

Ministry experience

Healthcare setting knowledge

NHS processes

Ethical healthcare issues

Multi-faith context

Pastoral care

Education

Ordained/licensed status

Theology degree

Healthcare Chaplaincy qualification

Counselling qualification

Job description

Our current vacancies

If you want to be part of the Royal Free London team, search our current vacancies below to find the job for you.

Main area Chaplain Grade NHS AfC: Band 6 Contract Permanent: Additional out of hours on call duties Hours

• Full time
• Flexible working

37.5 hours per week (Additional weekend and out of hours on call) Job ref 391-RFL-8377968

Site North Middlesex University Hospital Town London Salary £45,953 - £54,254 per annum inclusive of HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 18/11/2026 23:59

Our trust has over 17,000 staff serving 2 million patients every year. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, North Middlesex University Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This larger scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients.

Our mission is to deliver world class care and expertise in our clinical services, underpinned by world class teaching and research and we will continue to measure our progress against our five governing objectives: excellent outcomes, excellent patient and staff experience, excellent value for taxpayers’ money, being safe and meeting our external duties, and building a strong organisation.

Everyone is welcome at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME, gender equality, staff carers and people with disabilities and lived experiences to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants.However, it’s important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey. Further guidance can be found in the NLPSS Applicant Toolkit https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1 .

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is committed to ensuring that its recruitment processes are carried out with integrity, transparency, and fairness for all applicants. To help maintain these standards, we ask candidates to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the recruitment process.

If incorrect or misleading information is identified, this may affect the progression of an application, any employment offer, or continued employment. As part of our due diligence, the company may verify the information provided by applicants and take appropriate act ion where necessary.

We do not charge applicants any fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including applications, interviews, sponsorship arrangements, pre-employment checks, or employment offers. All vacancies are advertised through TRAC/NHS Jobs and candidates are assessed solely on their skills, qualifications, experience, and suitability for the role. If you are asked to make a payment in connection with an NHS job opportunity, please treat this as suspicious and contact the organisation directly using the details published on our official career's website

We are seeking a compassionate, creative and motivated chaplain to work as part of our Spiritual Care Team. You will be joining a team that is diverse and inclusive. Informal visits and conversations are welcome. This post is open to all faiths and beliefs.

The Chaplaincy-Spiritual Care team is committed to providing compassionate, person-centred spiritual, pastoral, and religious care to patients, families, visitors, volunteers, and staff of all faiths, beliefs, and philosophies of life. We seek to promote dignity, wellbeing, and holistic care through a compassionate, non-judgemental approach that respects and values individual differences and lived experiences.

The team offers responsive one-to-one spiritual and religious support tailored to the needs of each individual. Chaplains provide both inclusive spiritual care and faith-specific support where requested or appropriate, ensuring that all people are treated with respect, sensitivity, and understanding.

Main duties of the job

Provide appropriate, compassionate, and sensitive spiritual and religious care to patients, families, carers, visitors, volunteers, and staff.

· Receive and respond appropriately to both urgent and non-urgent referrals, referring to other chaplains as necessary.

· Work collaboratively and maintain excellent communication with members of the Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Team.

· Raise the profile of spiritual care across the Trust by maintaining a visible presence within clinical areas and actively engaging with staff through multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), ethics committees, organ donation committees, staff networks, and other relevant forums.

· Provide pastoral and wellbeing support to staff through one-to-one sessions, reflective practice groups, and debriefs following challenging or complex situations.

· Contribute to the delivery of teaching, training, and educational sessions as required.

· Support individuals and families who have experienced pregnancy loss and, where appropriate, arrange, plan, and lead baby funerals and memorial services.

· Oversee and assist in maintaining spiritual care and multi-faith spaces across the Trust.

· Participate in the provision of a 24-hour on-call Chaplaincy service, as required.

Working for our organisation

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s biggest and most innovative trusts. Across three main hospitals, our dedicated army of staff care for over 1.6million patients, treat more than 200,000 in A&E, deliver over 8,000 babies and carry out more than 17million tests.
Our size, scale and influence offer you unrivalled career opportunities and a forward-thinking approach to working that works around your lifestyle. From flexible hours and generous benefits, to next level training, we make it easier to take your career to the top

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached job description for more information about this role and working at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Experience

• Comprehensive knowledge of faith and belief systems to be able to work in a multi-faith, multi-cultural context
• To have experience of counselling and/or pastoral and religious support
• Demonstrate substantial experience of ministry
• Experience and knowledge of healthcare settings
• Knowledge and understanding of the workings of the NHS to enable the post holder to work as part of the chaplaincy-spiritual care team and play an active part in the life of the trust in a multi-disciplinary context
• Understanding of national policies and procedures relevant to the provision of the healthcare chaplaincy service
• Theoretical knowledge on ethical issues relating to healthcare
• Experience of working in multi-faith contexts

Education and professional qualificatons

• Recognised (ordained/licensed) and in good standing with faith and/or belief community
• Educated to degree level in theology and ministerial development as per faith and belief traditio
• Healthcare Chaplaincy PG Cert/Dip/MA or equivalent
• Counselling qualification

Royal Free shared commitments

• Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust shared commitments

Personal qualities and attributes

• Ability to communicate with staff, patients and others in difficult and sensitive situations
• Highly developed communication skills including the ability to teach and share ideas as part of teamwork
• An ability to express idea clearly and effectively in speech and writing
• Commitment to working in a multi-faith context with openness to the views and doubts of others and a willingness to pastorally care for people of all faiths and beliefs.
• Empathetic and compassionate
• Deep personal spirituality
• Commitment to continuous learning and development

Others

• Share in the provision of 24-hour on-call, to provide emergency spiritual and religious care as required and appropriate
• Liturgical competence
• AT* - Apprenticeship Training. Where AT* is entered next to the job title indicates that this vacancy is for an apprenticeship role.
• By applying for this role, you accept if successful, that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS.This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which aims at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers.Therefore we require you to complete your stat and Man e-learning modules prior to joining our organisation.
• Some administrative recruitment activities may be undertaken using automated workflow and robotic process automation technologies. These tools assist authorised staff in processing recruitment records and employment checks but do not make decisions regarding your employment.
• If you are an EU/EEA citizen who does not have EU Settlement or Pre-Settled status, you will require a visa to work in the UK.
• You must already have the right to work in the United Kingdom or fully meet the eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route. We welcome applications from candidates who require visa sponsorship; however, we can only consider these where all UKVI requirements are met. Before applying, please ensure that both you and the role satisfy the relevant UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) points‑based system criteria, as applications that do not meet these requirements cannot be progressed. For more information about the criteria, please click here
• If you are offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre-employment checks youridentity and right to work documentation will be verifiedremotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk
• The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.
• The Trust will request a DBS(CRB) if post involves regulated activities. The Trust is compliant with the Disclosure and Barring Service Codes of practice and the Rehabilitation of offenders act.
• By applying for this post you are agreeing to Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.
• Please be aware of scams – unless specified above, we will only communicate with you via @recruit.trac.jobs or nhs.net e-mails and we will never ask you for any payments.

Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.

Please note:

• Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date. Therefore please apply for this post as soon as you can, if you are interested and you meet the requirements of the Person Specification
• Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification will be shortlisted for this job.
• Interview arrangements will be communicated via email so please check your email regularly following the closing date.

Please be advised that due to exceptionally high demand, all Royal Free accommodation is at full capacity and waiting lists are being held. Average waiting times are 12 months. Please do not rely on Trust accommodation when you commence your role and ensure you investigate alternative accommodation for your arrival.

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.