Chaplain

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust; Camberley; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an experienced chaplain to join the Chaplaincy Department at Frimley Park Hospital. The role involves providing pastoral and spiritual care, working with a team, and sharing in day-to-day duties across sites.

The successful candidate will have extensive pastoral experience, formal theological qualification, and the ability to collaborate across faith groups, with responsibilities including daytime hours 8am-4pm and on-call duties.

Qualifications

• Formal theological qualification or degree is essential.
• Endorsement for the role by a faith group.
• Substantial pastoral experience in local faith/belief settings.
• Experience in facilitating rites and meeting spiritual needs according to service user’s faith/belief.
• Experience in training, supervising and managing volunteers.

Responsibilities

• Provide pastoral, spiritual and religious care to patients, relatives, carers and staff.
• Share daytime duties 8am–4pm and on-call rota every day of the week.
• Work with the Chaplaincy team and Trust volunteers to extend care in challenging situations.
• Work primarily at Frimley Park Hospital with duties at other sites per operational needs.

Skills

Leadership

Collaboration

Interfaith knowledge

Communication skills

Pastoral care

Education

Formal theological qualification

Endorsement by faith group

Board-certified chaplain (Desirable)

Postgraduate Healthcare Chaplaincy (Desirable)

Job description

Job Overview We are looking for an experienced, enthusiastic motivated individual. They will have their main base at Frimley Park Hospital and be required to share in 24/7 out of hours emergency provision. Experience working in healthcare chaplaincy is an essential requirement.

They will join the Trust-wide Chaplaincy Department of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. The Chaplaincy Department provides pastoral, spiritual and religious care to patients, their relatives and carers and staff within the Trust. They will work as a generic/inclusive Chaplain and their approach will be person-centred and collaborative. Working well within a team is central to the role and you will work with the Lead Chaplain and the current team of Chaplains and Trust Volunteers.

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust has three main sites: Frimley Park Hospital in Frimley, Surrey; Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, Berkshire; and Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, Berkshire. The Trust also provides services from a number of satellite sites including Farnham Hospital and Heathlands Centre in Bracknell and Fleet Community Hospital.

Previous applicants need not apply.

Main duties of the job

Your Role Will Involve

• Working with the current team of Chaplains and Trust Chaplaincy Volunteers in extending the provision of care in challenging situations.
• Providing specialist knowledge and expertise in matters relating to spiritual and religious beliefs, experiences and practices.
• Sharing in daytime weekday duties which are from 8am to 4pm.
• Sharing in the out of hours on-call rota every day of the week.
• You will primarily at Frimley Park Hospital but be expected to work at other sites depending on operational demands.

Working for our organisation

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is committed to being an inclusive and disability confident employer and has been awarded the Gold for the Armed Forces Employment Recognition Scheme. We provide first class development opportunities for all staff and have a wide range of professional, management and leadership, and clinical skills training available.

Here at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, we know how important it is to have a healthy work life balance; this benefits not only individuals but the patients we care for too.

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service and its users.

Frimley Health Trust benefits on Vimeo.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Previous applicants need not apply.

All applications will be considered based only on the essential and desirable criteria listed in the Person Specification attached.

Please refer to the job description attached for a comprehensive list of duties.

Person specification

Skills

Essential criteria

• Leadership skills
• Ability to work collaboratively across faith and belief boundaries
• Working knowledge of faith and belief systems other than one’s own, and the ability to apply this knowledge in a diverse context
• Skilled at designing, facilitating and leading services of worship in a wide variety of settings
• Digital and verbal communication skills desirable for effective communication of information within the organisation and with the public

Desirable criteria

• Pastoral supervision skills
• Volunteer management skills
• Counselling skills

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Formal Theological Qualification or equivalent to degree level or equivalent.
• Endorsement for the role by a faith or belief group as defined by the Network for Pastoral, Spiritual and Religious Care in Health.

Desirable criteria

• Registered as a Board-Certified chaplain with the UK Board for Healthcare Chaplaincy
• Member of the College of Health Care Chaplains and/or The Association for Hospice & Palliative Care Chaplains
• Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Chaplaincy
• Qualification in Clinical Pastoral Education

Experience

Essential criteria

• Substantial, recent pastoral experience in a local faith/belief community setting or equivalent
• Experience in facilitating rites and meeting spiritual needs according to service user’s own faith/belief group
• Experience of training, supervising and managing volunteers
• Experience in the pastoral care of bereaved people
• Experience in the pastoral care of terminally ill people
• Experience in crisis work such as pastoral care following traumatic injury, death and major incidents
• Experience of collaborative working in a diverse multi-faith/belief setting

Desirable criteria

• Experience of providing teaching on spiritual care to healthcare professionals
• Experience in Healthcare Chaplaincy
• Experience of pastoral care of staff under pressure
• Experience in the pastoral care of people bereaved of children and experience of death through pregnancy loss, still birth, and neonatal death.

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust (FHFT) is proud of its strong reputation, record of achievement and ambition for the future. We serve a population of over 900,000 people across Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey and South Buckinghamshire, and remain committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our communities.

Our new organisational strategy – FHFT 2030 – sets out our ambition to be the best place to receive care and the best place to work in the NHS. Underpinned by our Trust values – Committed to Excellence, Working Together, Facing the Future, and being a modern, compassionate, Healthcare Organisation – we are creating a culture where our people can thrive and patients always come first.

We continue to invest heavily in our services and facilities. This includes the development of a new hospital at Frimley Park, major expansion of diagnostics and inpatient capacity, and the continued transformation of services across our sites. We have already delivered a brand-new £100m state-of-the-art Heatherwood Hospital, a £49m Emergency Assessment Centre at Wexham Park, and a £10m upgrade to maternity services.

We are also committed to sustainability and the NHS Net Zero ambition. Our new hospital and estate developments are being designed to be environmentally responsible, energy efficient, and future-proofed, featuring on-site renewables energy and intelligent energy systems. Through our green plan, we are embedding sustainable practices across all areas of care and operations, ensuring we reduce our environmental impact while improving population health and wellbeing. Our staff are key to help us deliver on our ambition and to ensure sustainability is a core component of care delivery and our operations.

Alongside estates’ investments, we are embedding a strong focus on digital innovation and quality improvement. Our electronic patient record (Epic), launched in 2024, is already enabling safer, more connected, and more effective care for patients, while giving staff the tools they need to do their best work. Our electronic patient record also supports safe and effective digitised care pathways, savings time and carbon, whilst delivering excellent quality of care.

Everything we do is guided by our values, shaping how we care for patients, support colleagues, and build a sustainable future for healthcare together.