Lead Chaplain - Anglican

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

Job summary

A leading NHS trust is seeking a Lead Chaplain to provide multi-faith chaplaincy services, guiding spiritual care for staff and patients. The role entails leadership responsibilities, including overseeing chaplaincy volunteers and developing strategies for spiritual support. Candidates should possess a degree in Theology or related fields and significant experience in pastoral care.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in providing pastoral and spiritual care.
• Endorsement to practice as a healthcare chaplain.
• Experience in multi-disciplinary settings.

Responsibilities

• Provide pastoral, spiritual, and religious care to patients and staff.
• Lead the chaplaincy team and manage on-call duties.
• Arrange and conduct religious services and funerals.

Skills

Excellent communication

Empathy

Leadership

Education

A degree in Theology or a related field

Postgraduate qualification relevant to healthcare chaplaincy

Job description

Job summary

The Lead Chaplain is responsible for leading the delivery of Multi-faith Chaplaincy services across the Trust. The Lead Chaplain will be responsible for working with the Matron for Patient Experience to develop a Trust strategy and delivery plan for religious, spiritual and pastoral care. They will have management responsibility for both healthcare chaplains, honorary chaplains and chaplaincy volunteers and ensure there is an on-call provision during weekends.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will provide specialist pastoral, spiritual and religious advice and care for Christian patients, families and staff.

The postholder will provide guidance and assurance to the Trust Patient Experience and Involvement Group and Quality Committee on matters relating to religious, spiritual and pastoral care for patients, families and staff.

The post holder will also personally deliver high quality chaplaincy support to staff and patients, often in complex and traumatic situations.

About us

We employ more than 6,500 staffwho deliver compassionate care from our two main hospitals,Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary as well as in community sites, healthcentres and in patients' homes. We also are incredibly proud to have almost 150 volunteers here at CHFT.

We provide a range of services including urgent and emergency care; medical; surgical; maternity; gynaecology; critical care; children's and young people's services; end of life care and outpatient and diagnostic imaging services.

We provide community health services, including sexual health services in Calderdale from Calderdale Royal and local health centres. These include Todmorden Health Centre and Broad Street Plaza.

We continue to modernise and invest in our health services to build on our strong reputation.Foundation trusts are public leaders in improving quality in health services. They are part of the NHS- yet decisions about what they do and how they do it are driven by independent boards. Boardslisten to their Council of Governors and respond to the needs of their members - patients, staff andthe local community.

Foundation trusts provide what the health service wants, yet are also free to invest quickly in thechanges to the local community needs, in striving to be the best, and in putting their patients first.

Details Date posted

10 June 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 7

Salary

£47,810 to £54,710 a year per annum, pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working

Reference number

372-CORP1939

Job locations

Cross-site working

Huddersfield

HD3 3EA

Job description Job responsibilities

The postholder will:

Pastoral and spiritual care

Provide religious, pastoral and spiritual care to staff, patients and visitors within Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.

Have A professional chaplaincy identity rooted in ones own religious /spiritual/pastoral heritage that integrates professional values and behaviours, skills and specialist knowledge.

Be a skilled communicator and to be able to establish and maintain relationships, often in challenging and sensitive situations.

Be able to negotiate and work within highly complex and sensitive situations and to provide or advise on the spiritual care that is required.

Be able to make specialised independent judgements regarding spiritual care, dependent upon the situation.

Have a commitment to one's own professional and spiritual growth and development.

Provide pastoral advice and support to staff of all disciplines and grades, both in professional and personal matters, and to participate in initiatives to promote good quality spiritual and religious care.

Develop and maintain skills and knowledge necessary to provide person-centred, evidence-based chaplaincy care to both healthcare staff as well as patients and their families

Be a spiritual, pastoral and ethical religious resource for the Trust; and to advise and facilitate on religious, pastoral and spiritual support for other faiths in consultation with chaplains of other faiths.

Participate in meeting objectives set by the Trust on aspects of healthcare.

Ensure an inclusive approach to developing and delivering chaplaincy services

If required, to commemorate the lives of staff members who die in service.

Liaise with other healthcare staff so that spiritual assessment and care form part of the continuum of care and attend multi-disciplinary meetings and department meetings as and when attendance is considered necessary.

Take responsibility for the departmental 'on call' rotas, and, with others provide generic on call cover overnight and at weekends

Have responsibility for responding to Major Incidents on behalf of the Chaplaincy Team.

Liaise with and advise local religious leaders about pastoral, spiritual and religious care of patients, visitors and staff and to receive information from such leaders, always remembering rules of confidentiality by which every NHS employee is bound.

Participate in disseminating information concerning healthcare to communities and in reducing obstacles, where religious and cultural considerations are involved.

Work effectively in highly stressful situations or where there is distress and/or verbal abuse.

Conducting religious services

Arrange a timetable for services of public worship regularly in the Trust's hospitals.

Ensure that the Chapel and Prayer Rooms in the Trust's Hospitals are suitably maintained and furnished.

Arrange and conduct Contract Funerals (miscarriages, stillbirths, neonatal deaths and adults) as required.

Arrange such memorial services and other corporate or public services as the Trust requires.

Provide or enable appropriate rites and rituals, particularly with regard to death and the dying, the seriously ill and birth rites, as required and as consistent with the post holders authorised scope of practice.

Teaching

Participate in the training of students/ordinands.

Lead in the development and delivery of training in religious care, spiritual care, bereavement, end of life care, etc., through induction, preceptorship and other bespoke training sessions to staff of all grades and disciplines.

Recruit, train and prepare chaplaincy volunteers for their role, including that of End-of-Life Companions.

Undertake own relevant statutory and mandatory training using the Trusts e-learning package.

Demonstrate a commitment to research-based practice and clinical excellence in chaplaincy.

Leadership responsibilities

Have responsibility for the day to day running of the Chaplaincy, and to organize those to deputise in their absence.

Promote effective interpersonal relationships with all members of the multi-professional team thereby ensuring a good team spirit, collaborative and person-centred working practices

Plan and chair the Team's Monthly Meetings or arrange for a deputy.

Have budget holder responsibility for the chaplaincy department and participate in budget-setting and annual review of service provision as requested.

Identify gaps in service provision and address how patient care, staff support, and the Trust's ambitions might be supported through Chaplaincy, and to share such evaluation with chaplains.

Monitor and develop the implementation of the Chaplaincy Team's aims and objectives and their commitment to the objectives of the Trust.

Encourage innovation and change within the chaplaincy team, and the service offered.

Respond to Freedom of Information requests, requests for information, complaints and other feedback received concerning the chaplaincy department

Undertake annual appraisals of chaplains and discuss personal and professional development needs during an appraisal, developing, agreeing and documenting action points.

Act as a role model for the multidisciplinary team promoting consistent professional and clinical excellence.

Promote the wellbeing of the chaplaincy team and have a concern for their welfare.

Monitor the sickness and attendance of chaplains and manage such absences in accordance with Trust policy.

Approve travel and other expenses of chaplains.

Ensure staffing resources are used appropriately across the whole of the Trust and manage the Health Care Roster maintaining accurate records for payroll.

Ensure mandatory and essential skills training requirements are met by chaplains, and sharing in the supervision and support of volunteers.

Be competent in the use of all relevant Trust information technology (IT) systems including documentation and record keeping in the Electronic Patient Record (EPR), email and ensure data is entered in an accurate and timely fashion, in accordance with Trust policy and procedure.

Be able to plan and prioritise own workload in response to patient, staff and visitor needs.

Arrange regular spiritual supervision or mentoring for self.

This job description is an outline only and is not definitive or restrictive in any way. It will be regularly reviewed and may be amended in the light of changing circumstances following consultation with the post holder.

Job description Job responsibilities

The postholder will:

Pastoral and spiritual care

Provide religious, pastoral and spiritual care to staff, patients and visitors within Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.

Have A professional chaplaincy identity rooted in ones own religious /spiritual/pastoral heritage that integrates professional values and behaviours, skills and specialist knowledge.

Be a skilled communicator and to be able to establish and maintain relationships, often in challenging and sensitive situations.

Be able to negotiate and work within highly complex and sensitive situations and to provide or advise on the spiritual care that is required.

Be able to make specialised independent judgements regarding spiritual care, dependent upon the situation.

Have a commitment to one's own professional and spiritual growth and development.

Provide pastoral advice and support to staff of all disciplines and grades, both in professional and personal matters, and to participate in initiatives to promote good quality spiritual and religious care.

Develop and maintain skills and knowledge necessary to provide person-centred, evidence-based chaplaincy care to both healthcare staff as well as patients and their families

Be a spiritual, pastoral and ethical religious resource for the Trust; and to advise and facilitate on religious, pastoral and spiritual support for other faiths in consultation with chaplains of other faiths.

Participate in meeting objectives set by the Trust on aspects of healthcare.

Ensure an inclusive approach to developing and delivering chaplaincy services

If required, to commemorate the lives of staff members who die in service.

Liaise with other healthcare staff so that spiritual assessment and care form part of the continuum of care and attend multi-disciplinary meetings and department meetings as and when attendance is considered necessary.

Take responsibility for the departmental 'on call' rotas, and, with others provide generic on call cover overnight and at weekends

Have responsibility for responding to Major Incidents on behalf of the Chaplaincy Team.

Liaise with and advise local religious leaders about pastoral, spiritual and religious care of patients, visitors and staff and to receive information from such leaders, always remembering rules of confidentiality by which every NHS employee is bound.

Participate in disseminating information concerning healthcare to communities and in reducing obstacles, where religious and cultural considerations are involved.

Work effectively in highly stressful situations or where there is distress and/or verbal abuse.

Conducting religious services

Arrange a timetable for services of public worship regularly in the Trust's hospitals.

Ensure that the Chapel and Prayer Rooms in the Trust's Hospitals are suitably maintained and furnished.

Arrange and conduct Contract Funerals (miscarriages, stillbirths, neonatal deaths and adults) as required.

Arrange such memorial services and other corporate or public services as the Trust requires.

Provide or enable appropriate rites and rituals, particularly with regard to death and the dying, the seriously ill and birth rites, as required and as consistent with the post holders authorised scope of practice.

Teaching

Participate in the training of students/ordinands.

Lead in the development and delivery of training in religious care, spiritual care, bereavement, end of life care, etc., through induction, preceptorship and other bespoke training sessions to staff of all grades and disciplines.

Recruit, train and prepare chaplaincy volunteers for their role, including that of End-of-Life Companions.

Undertake own relevant statutory and mandatory training using the Trusts e-learning package.

Demonstrate a commitment to research-based practice and clinical excellence in chaplaincy.

Leadership responsibilities

Have responsibility for the day to day running of the Chaplaincy, and to organize those to deputise in their absence.

Promote effective interpersonal relationships with all members of the multi-professional team thereby ensuring a good team spirit, collaborative and person-centred working practices

Plan and chair the Team's Monthly Meetings or arrange for a deputy.

Have budget holder responsibility for the chaplaincy department and participate in budget-setting and annual review of service provision as requested.

Identify gaps in service provision and address how patient care, staff support, and the Trust's ambitions might be supported through Chaplaincy, and to share such evaluation with chaplains.

Monitor and develop the implementation of the Chaplaincy Team's aims and objectives and their commitment to the objectives of the Trust.

Encourage innovation and change within the chaplaincy team, and the service offered.

Respond to Freedom of Information requests, requests for information, complaints and other feedback received concerning the chaplaincy department

Undertake annual appraisals of chaplains and discuss personal and professional development needs during an appraisal, developing, agreeing and documenting action points.

Act as a role model for the multidisciplinary team promoting consistent professional and clinical excellence.

Promote the wellbeing of the chaplaincy team and have a concern for their welfare.

Monitor the sickness and attendance of chaplains and manage such absences in accordance with Trust policy.

Approve travel and other expenses of chaplains.

Ensure staffing resources are used appropriately across the whole of the Trust and manage the Health Care Roster maintaining accurate records for payroll.

Ensure mandatory and essential skills training requirements are met by chaplains, and sharing in the supervision and support of volunteers.

Be competent in the use of all relevant Trust information technology (IT) systems including documentation and record keeping in the Electronic Patient Record (EPR), email and ensure data is entered in an accurate and timely fashion, in accordance with Trust policy and procedure.

Be able to plan and prioritise own workload in response to patient, staff and visitor needs.

Arrange regular spiritual supervision or mentoring for self.

This job description is an outline only and is not definitive or restrictive in any way. It will be regularly reviewed and may be amended in the light of changing circumstances following consultation with the post holder.

Person Specification QUALIFICATIONS / TRAINING Essential

• A degree or equivalent in Theology, Religious Studies or a related field such as counselling, pastoral care, psychology, psychotherapy, religious studies or theology
• Endorsement to practice as a healthcare chaplain by a recognised faith community or belief group.

Desirable

• Post graduate qualification or masters relevant to healthcare chaplaincy
• Registration with the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplains or eligibility to register
• Qualification in Leadership and Management

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE & EXPERTISE Essential

• Significant experience in providing pastoral and spiritual care in a healthcare setting.
• Proven leadership and management experience
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary setting and the ability to promote shared decision making
• Create and lead ritual or other spiritual process in a way that is sensitive to the pastoral context and faith/belief needs of those present
• Demonstrable evidence of working with and respecting religious, spiritual and pastoral diversity and differences
• Working knowledge of major faith communities and belief groups in relation to the acute hospital context
• Commitment to undertake further training essential to the requirements of the post
• An understanding of the principles and practice of governance
• Have proven pastoral, spiritual and religious expertise in complex, emotional and distressing situations.
• In depth knowledge of religious, spiritual and ethical issues relating to healthcare
• Engagement with audit, service evaluation or research
• Ability to take responsibility for, and representation of, the Chaplaincy Department
• Ability to take responsibility for, and representation of, the Chaplaincy Department
• IT skills and accurate record keeping
• Experience of managing change within the service and supporting immediate team members with a flexible approach and embracing of change

Desirable

• Ability to articulate vision for the chaplaincy service

COMMUNICATION AND RELATIONSHIPS (INCLUDING MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES) Essential

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Experience of counselling skills and pastoral techniques
• Empathetic, self-aware, compassionate and approachable
• To be trustworthy, showing careful attention to the individual and specific needs of those in their care, and have an approach that values and affirms the right of those outside the chaplain's own tradition to proactive their beliefs appropriately
• Supervision of newly qualified chaplains and others working within the chaplaincy service
• Work within the UKBHC Code of Conduct.
• Supportive of the Trust's values
• To participate in the on-call rota which offers cover overnight and at the weekend
• Willingness to respond to urgent need and unexpected events, including Major Incidents

Desirable

• A current driving licence with access to own transport

Person Specification QUALIFICATIONS / TRAINING Essential

• A degree or equivalent in Theology, Religious Studies or a related field such as counselling, pastoral care, psychology, psychotherapy, religious studies or theology
• Endorsement to practice as a healthcare chaplain by a recognised faith community or belief group.

Desirable

• Post graduate qualification or masters relevant to healthcare chaplaincy
• Registration with the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplains or eligibility to register
• Qualification in Leadership and Management

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE & EXPERTISE Essential

• Significant experience in providing pastoral and spiritual care in a healthcare setting.
• Proven leadership and management experience
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary setting and the ability to promote shared decision making
• Create and lead ritual or other spiritual process in a way that is sensitive to the pastoral context and faith/belief needs of those present
• Demonstrable evidence of working with and respecting religious, spiritual and pastoral diversity and differences
• Working knowledge of major faith communities and belief groups in relation to the acute hospital context
• Commitment to undertake further training essential to the requirements of the post
• An understanding of the principles and practice of governance
• Have proven pastoral, spiritual and religious expertise in complex, emotional and distressing situations.
• In depth knowledge of religious, spiritual and ethical issues relating to healthcare
• Engagement with audit, service evaluation or research
• Ability to take responsibility for, and representation of, the Chaplaincy Department
• Ability to take responsibility for, and representation of, the Chaplaincy Department
• IT skills and accurate record keeping
• Experience of managing change within the service and supporting immediate team members with a flexible approach and embracing of change

Desirable

• Ability to articulate vision for the chaplaincy service

COMMUNICATION AND RELATIONSHIPS (INCLUDING MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES) Essential

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Experience of counselling skills and pastoral techniques
• Empathetic, self-aware, compassionate and approachable
• To be trustworthy, showing careful attention to the individual and specific needs of those in their care, and have an approach that values and affirms the right of those outside the chaplain's own tradition to proactive their beliefs appropriately
• Supervision of newly qualified chaplains and others working within the chaplaincy service
• Work within the UKBHC Code of Conduct.
• Supportive of the Trust's values
• To participate in the on-call rota which offers cover overnight and at the weekend
• Willingness to respond to urgent need and unexpected events, including Major Incidents

Desirable

• A current driving licence with access to own transport

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.

Employer details Employer name

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Cross-site working

Huddersfield

HD3 3EA

Employer's website

https://www.cht.nhs.uk (Opens in a new tab)

Employer details Employer name

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Cross-site working

Huddersfield

HD3 3EA

Employer's website

https://www.cht.nhs.uk (Opens in a new tab)