Job summary
- Main area
- Chaplaincy
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 432-HR666-25
- Employer
- East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Colchester General Hospital
- Town
- Colchester
- Salary
- £55,690 - £62,682 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 18/09/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Head of Chaplaincy
NHS AfC: Band 8a
We are one of the largest NHS organisation in England. Our scale provides exciting opportunities for development, innovation, research, education and training.
Talk to us about our range of flexible working opportunities, apprenticeships and staff benefits
Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is at the heart of all we do; and it forms part of the ESNEFT’s core activities. The Trust operates and relies on everyone treating each other with dignity and respect, to receive equitable and fair treatment in the implementation of Policies, Procedures and in its Practices, to foster positive work relationships, and finally to act with integrity as a professional within ESNEFT as well as a representative of the NHS as a whole. The EDI Agenda reflects the Trust values such as Optimistic, Appreciative and Kind. In line with the NHS Long Term Plan, People Plan, People Promise and a Model Employer intrinsic in the Equality Diversity and Inclusion Agenda, we consistently strive to improve, to take the learning into Action for a better ESNEFT.
If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge then we are keen to hear from you.
Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a suitably qualified, experienced, visionary and talented healthcare chaplain to join East Suffolk & North Essex NHS Foundation Trust as Head of Chaplaincy. ESNEFT’s Head of Chaplaincy provides strategic leadership to the Trust, leading on pastoral, spiritual and religious care within the organisation, and leading and managing the chaplaincy team. The Head of Chaplaincy role offers an exciting opportunity to lead a large chaplaincy team across multiple sites in a busy and culturally diverse organisation, and to further develop a multi-faith and belief approach to chaplaincy provision.
The Head of Chaplaincy role requires taking full responsibility for the role across the whole Trust whilst maintaining a level of operational chaplaincy commitment through the provision of face-to-face pastoral, spiritual and religious care to patients, relatives or staff members of any religion or belief, and by participating in the 24/7 on-call service and weekend working.
The successful candidate will be educated to Master’s Degree Level or equivalent in experience, in an appropriate subject such as chaplaincy studies or pastoral theology and have substantial healthcare chaplaincy and management experience within the NHS, and in line with current UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy guidance. They will need to be able to use your own personal transport for chaplaincy duties, with appropriate travel expenses being offered in return.
Main duties of the job
· Develop, implement, monitor and review the strategy of the chaplaincy service in line with current NHS England chaplaincy guidance and guidance from professional and regulatory bodies e.g. UKBHC chaplaincy Code of Conduct, and the Trust’s corporate agenda in consultation with the Deputy Director of Nursing Quality
· Manage the chaplaincy budget and charitable funds within Trust procedures and contribute to the drawing up of department/service budgets or financial initiatives. Act as an authorised signatory for small cash/ financial payment i.e. overtime, travel, ordering stock etc.
· Contribute to the strategic and operational working of the chaplaincy service through collaboration with the wider patient services meetings, ‘away-days’ and other relevant meetings and project work. Contribute towards policy implementation, providing advice on best practice and contribute to relevant decision making as part of patient services
· Further the development of the chaplaincy service and pastoral, spiritual and religious care in the Trust/community by making clear links between (a) the Trusts corporate agenda, (b) the spiritual, religious and pastoral needs of staff and patients, and (c) the resources of chaplaincy care
· Produce reports, business plans and business cases as and when required
· Identify financial resources to develop the human resources side of the department to meet national guidelines within a multi-faith and belief framework
Working for our organisation
We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients’ own homes.
We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.
We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options.
Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.
Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.
We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what’s widely regarded as the world’s best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.
If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.
Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Master’s degree level qualification in subject(s) that embrace a theoretical understanding and practical application of pastoral, spiritual and religious care. e.g. practical theology, pastoral care, existential and humanist care, or equivalent experience
- Post-basic training relevant to healthcare chaplaincy
- Authorised faith or belief representative or chaplain eligible to be licensed/authorised by their respective faith or belief body
Desirable criteria
- Management Training Qualification equivalent to ILM Level 3 or above
- UKBHC Registered Chaplain
- Clinical Pastoral Education qualification, Post-graduate certificate or master’s in healthcare chaplaincy
- Trained Mental Health First Aider
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant proven health care chaplaincy experience within the NHS
- Experience of management & managing teams
- Significant experience of providing pastoral, spiritual and religious care in an NHS setting
- Experience of working sensitively with people of all faiths and beliefs, and within multi-faith and belief teams
- Demonstrable good standing within own faith or belief community
- Experience of providing chaplaincy advice within a Trust and externally.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of healthcare chaplaincy in a specialist area e.g. palliative care, surgery, critical care, A&E
- Experience of managing a chaplaincy team in the NHS
- Experience of creating and delivering spiritual, pastoral and religious care training programmes
- Experience of managing and training chaplaincy volunteers.
- Experience of supervising students on placement.
- Experience of undertaking research, service evaluation and audit.
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Awareness of NHS management structure, organisation, strategy & policy
- Knowledge of how to line manage one or more members of staff and undertake their development, including through the use of HR policies
- Knowledge and understanding of national policies and procedures relevant to the provision of an acute healthcare chaplaincy service
- Understanding of the dynamics of large NHS organisations, and the opportunities and challenges experienced by chaplaincy services in such healthcare settings.
- Working knowledge of faith and belief systems, rituals and practices other than one’s own; and the ability to apply this knowledge working in a secular multi-cultural, multi-faith and belief context.
- An understanding of medical ethics
Desirable criteria
- Excellent knowledge of NHS management structure, organisation, strategy and policy
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
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.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Linda Peall
- Job title
- Head of Chaplaincy
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07923 241334
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