Lead Chaplain

NHS; Coventry; On-site; GBP 47,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare organization in Coventry is seeking a Lead Chaplain to manage spiritual care services within a mental health context. The ideal candidate will support clients and staff, develop creative care methods, and work as part of a multidisciplinary team. Candidates must possess ordination training, significant pastoral experience, and the ability to navigate diverse faiths. This role includes the opportunity to engage in cutting-edge research and requires travel across multiple sites. Annual salary ranges from £47,810 to £54,710.

Benefits

Generous annual leave

Learning and development opportunities

Salary sacrifice schemes

Discounts with various retailers

Wellbeing support

Staff networks and support groups

Qualifications

• Extensive pastoral experience supporting individuals in emotional distress.
• Working knowledge of major faith communities in healthcare.
• Experience in teaching and training healthcare professionals.

Responsibilities

• Manage a chaplain, volunteers, and the Service Level Agreement.
• Develop and provide spiritual and pastoral care for clients and staff.
• Travel across Trust sites in Coventry & Warwickshire.

Skills

Emotional and spiritual coping techniques

Support for people of all faiths

Pastoral care experience

Cultural competence

Teamwork in a multidisciplinary environment

Education

Degree level ordination training

Registered as a chaplain with UKBHC

Evidence of continued professional development

Job description

Lead Chaplain

The closing date is 16 January 2026.

Hello, I'm Simon Moult and I'm retiring after 21 years serving as lead chaplain at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust. During this time, I have found the challenges of providing spiritual care in the mainly mental health setting both rewarding and challenging. I have experienced a real feeling of belonging and connectedness with my colleagues and can truly say that chaplaincy is at the very heart of our Trust. If you feel drawn towards an organisation that will respect your belief, enable you to grow, encourage your ingenuity in providing spiritual & religious care, value what faith can bring as a key factor in the resilience of our clients, and also as a contributing factor to its everyday organisation and policies, then I'd like to hand over to someone who can be as excited as I have been to take on the opportunity to join an NHS Trust which has embedded spiritual and religious care for its people at its heart.

You will manage a band 6 chaplain, volunteers and Service Level Agreement, you will be part of a multi-faith team and will assist in the continued development and provision of religious, spiritual, and pastoral care in imaginative and creative ways for our clients, relatives and staff. The Trust also gets involved in cutting edge research for our spiritual care. Dr YingFei Hliot | University of Surrey

Main duties of the job

• Be able to meet the guidance notes criteria for successful applications.
• Be able to demonstrate your interest, experience and understanding of working within a health care or a similar setting with transferable skills.
• Be able to demonstrate your extensive pastoral experience of supporting people in emotional and spiritual distress or who are suffering from mental illness or trauma.
• Be able to demonstrate your own emotional and spiritual coping techniques when providing such support.
• Be able to demonstrate your ability to support, accept and care for people of all faiths, beliefs and none.
• Be able to be comfortable in forensic, Psychiatric Intensive Care Units, elderly mental health, learning disabilities, adults, adolescents, and children's settings.
• Be able to demonstrate your ability to work as part of a Chaplaincy team, alongside colleagues and volunteers and with wider multidisciplinary teams within the Trust in addition to being able to work alone.
• Be able to travel across Trust sites in Coventry & Warwickshire.

About us

At Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (CWPT), we deliver a wide range of physical, mental health, learning disability and autism services, and are proud to serve communities across Coventry, Warwickshire and beyond.

We put 'people at our heart'; this ethos is at the centre of everything we do and how we do it. We care for our staff and colleagues as much as they care for others and offer a wide range of benefits and development opportunities.

• generous annual leave entitlement which increases during your time with us
• excellent learning and development opportunities, including apprenticeship frameworks, distance learning, internal training, coaching and mentoring, and much more
• salary sacrifice schemes for lease car/ vehicle, Cycle to Work, home and electronics, gym membership and more
• discounts with a range of retailers, restaurants and entertainment venues through our Employee Assistance Programme and NHS discount schemes
• wellbeing support, including an in-house counselling service, external helpline and more
• staff networks and support group

We're always on the lookout for people who share our passion for improving the lives and wellbeing of people in our community, as well as our values of compassion, collaboration, excellence, integrity and respect.

Job responsibilities

Please see attached job description.

Qualifications

• Degree level ordination training, or faith community equivalent, authorisation by faith community, and significant experience of working in a recognised religious ministry
• Ordained or authorised within an appropriate ecclesiastical authority
• Registered as a chaplain with UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy or equivalent and able to undertake appropriate professional training including being informed of national developments within spiritual healthcare
• Evidence of annual continued professional development relevant to healthcare chaplaincy to UKBHC standards

Knowledge

• Substantial years of experience in health care chaplaincy with approximately 1600 hours experience of professionally supervised clinical practice as an autonomous practitioner healthcare chaplain
• Working knowledge of major faith communities and belief groups working in the healthcare context
• Development of a specialist area of knowledge and expertise in an Adult Mental Health, Forensic, Learning Disability and Autism or specialist Children's Services
• Teaching and training of healthcare professionals at a variety of levels
• Experience of working at a strategic level
• Experience of overseeing a range of complex cases supporting others to deliver effective pastoral and spiritual care.
• Experience of leading reflective practice with a range of groups
• Experience of leading ritual or other spiritual process in a way that is sensitive to the pastoral context and faith/believe needs of those present
• Cultural competence and religious literacy in diverse religious, spiritual and pastoral traditions

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.

Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust

£47,810 to £54,710 a yearper annum pro rata