Lead Chaplain

NHS; City Of London; On-site; GBP 64,000 - 72,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare provider in London seeks an experienced Healthcare Chaplain to lead a compassionate team dedicated to providing spiritual and pastoral care in a dynamic hospital setting. Responsibilities include managing a diverse group of chaplains and ensuring effective care delivery for patients, their families, and staff. A validated qualification in spiritual care and extensive pastoral experience are essential. The position offers a competitive salary and a permanent, full-time role.

Qualifications

• Experience in managing spiritual care in a hospital setting is essential.
• Accredited or Licensed as a faith leader is required.
• Stakeholder engagement experience is a must.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of spiritual care practitioners.
• Manage delivery of spiritual, pastoral, and faith-based care.
• Engage and manage various stakeholders.

Skills

Active listening

Interpersonal skills

Communication

Budget management

Education

Validated training in spiritual care

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

Job Summary

Do you want to lead a team of spiritual care practitioners who are compassionate, mutually supportive and committed to developing best practice and who deliver effective, supportive care for the healthcare community of University College London Hospitals?

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Healthcare Chaplain who wants to broaden the horizons of their experience of managing the delivery of effective spiritual, pastoral, and faith-based care in a large, acute hospital setting in central London. You will manage a team of employed and voluntary chaplains from diverse faith/belief backgrounds, and you yourself will lead by example as a healthcare chaplain.

Main Duties of the Job

This role requires an experienced and proficient spiritual care practitioner with a person-centred approach who employs active listening together with a high-level of interpersonal skills in support of patients, their visitors and staff colleagues.

Applicants will be Accredited or Licensed with authority to practice as a religion or belief leader/representative and/or pastoral worker in line with NHS chaplaincy Guidelines for NHS managers on pastoral, spiritual and religious care. This post has become available because of the impending retirement of the current post-holder.

If you answer yes to the above questions, please consider joining and leading the Healthcare Chaplaincy Team at University College London Hospitals.

About Us

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) is one of the most complex NHS trusts in the UK, serving a large and diverse population. We provide academically led acute and specialist services, to people from the local area, from throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. Our vision is to deliver top-quality patient care, excellent education, and world-class research.

We provide first-class acute and specialist services across eight sites:

• University College Hospital (incorporating the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing)
• National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery
• Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitals
• University College Hospital Grafton Way Building
• Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine
• University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre
• The Hospital for Tropical Diseases
• University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street

We are dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of many complex illnesses. UCLH specialises in women's health and the treatment of cancer, infection, neurological, gastrointestinal and oral disease. It has world class support services including critical care, imaging, nuclear medicine and pathology.

We are committed to sustainability and have pledged to become a carbon net zero health service, embedding sustainable practice throughout UCLH. We have set an ambitious target of net zero for our direct emissions by 2031 and indirect emissions by 2040.

Details

Date posted: 21 November 2025

Pay scheme: Agenda for change

Band: Band 8a

Salary: £64,156 to £71,148 a year Per annum inclusive of HCAS

Contract: Permanent

Working pattern: Full-time

Reference number: 309-UCLH-7040-A

Job location: University College London Hospital, 235 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BU

Job responsibilities

For the full Person Specification and more information regarding the main responsibilities of this role, please refer to the attached Job Description.

Come and be a part of the best NHS trust in England to work for, according to our staff* UCLH top trust to work at in England - In the most recent NHS staff survey UCLH had the highest percentage of staff who said they would recommend us as a place to work, out of all general acute or acute/community NHS trusts in England for the third year in a row.

UCLH recognises the benefits of flexible working for staff. To find out more, visit: Flexible working.

To discover more about what makes UCLH a great place to work, visit: Why Choose UCLH?

Person Specification

Knowledge and Qualifications (Essential)

• Validated training in spiritual care or equivalent pastoral practice to the level of bachelor’s degree that is consistent with sponsoring faith community or belief group.
• A recognised faith leader in good standing with their faith community with the appropriate authorisation as recognised by the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy.
• Eligible to receive authorisation/permission/licence to officiate from the local faith/church/belief authorities.
• Significant experience of stakeholder engagement and management.
• Substantial experience of managing difficult situations including media attention and challenging behaviour.

Experience (Essential)

• Substantive pastoral experience in pastoral ministry, including significant senior level experience in an adult hospital chaplaincy setting which includes palliative and end‑of‑life care.
• Experience of working in a multi‑faith/multi‑cultural setting together with an understanding of the issues involved.
• Have an in‑depth knowledge of their own faith community and religious traditions and a knowledge of other traditions and faith/belief communities.
• A specialised understanding of contemporary health‑care ethical issues.
• Experience of teaching and training staff.
• Experience of financial management, including managing a budget.
• Sound IT skills (e.g. Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Experience of managing chaplaincy volunteers.
• Proven ability in supporting bereaved parents following miscarriage, stillbirth or peri‑natal deaths.

Skills and Abilities (Essential)

• A skilled communicator, able to establish and maintain appropriate relationships in pastorally challenging, complex, sensitive situations (sometimes within unpleasant and hostile environments).
• Able to train others within the areas of spiritual, religious and ethical issues.
• To liaise with local religious leaders and faith communities always acting within the rules of confidentiality by which every NHS employee is bound.
• Proven experience of managing budgetary resources; to include pay, non‑pay and income.

Desirable

• Experience of major incident planning.
• Proven counselling skills.

Communication (Essential)

• Articulate, influential and persuasive with proven ability to influence and negotiate with a range of staff including very senior staff.
• Be enthusiastic and motivated, with the ability to lead a team through times of change.
• To receive, manage and impart highly distressing information.

Personal and People Development (Essential)

• Able to co‑ordinate and manage the Chaplaincy service, providing supervision and support for chaplains, honorary chaplains, volunteers and students on placement.
• Have the necessary skills to arrange and offer specialist training in spiritual, ethical and multi‑faith issues.
• Time management and organisational skills in meeting objectives.
• Able to work under pressure.

Specific Requirements (Essential)

• Work pattern requires flexibility, including unsociable hours and 24/7 on‑call rota.
• The post holder will need to be passed fit to perform full duties of the post across the various UCLH hospitals. This will be determined through occupational health with any reasonable aids provided wherever possible.

Responsibilities towards promoting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (Essential)

• Knowledge of the NHS obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duties.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

Employer Details

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

University College Hospital, 235 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BU