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Job summary

Main area
Catholic Assistant Chaplain
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 5
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Part time - 15 hours per week (plus on-calls and overtime)
Job ref
196-COF10827-T
Employer
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Guy's and St Thomas' and the Evelina London Children's Hospitals, London Bridge Hospital. Mainly Guy's site
Town
London
Salary
£37,259 - £45,356 inc HCA pro rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
28/07/2025 23:59
Interview date
05/08/2025

Employer heading

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust logo

Catholic Assistant Chaplain

NHS AfC: Band 5

Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.

Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions. 

Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.

In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.

We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.

Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.

The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.

We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.



Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen to be an Assistant Chaplain looking after Catholic patients in London, working mainly at Guy's but also at St Thomas', the London Bridge and Evelina London Children's Hospitals. 

Guy's and St Thomas' is one of the largest trusts in the country and is highly diverse. This role is to be part of the team looking after Catholic patients from all over the world, and their families, and to support Catholic staff. 

It is expected the postholder would be trained in the Spiritual Health Care Academy in healthcare chaplaincy and would be willing to do further training.

Main duties of the job

To be an Assistant Chaplain  or a senior assistant Chaplain in the department of spiritual health care which provides for the pastoral, spiritual, ethical, cultural and religious needs of patients, staff and visitors and, where applicable, students within the Trust. Under authority of the Team Leaders, to work as part of the chaplaincy team as an assistant chaplain (trainee) or senior assistant chaplain. The team includes asst chaplains, chaplains, multi-faith/belief chaplains, bank chaplains, honorary chaplains, religious visitors, students and chaplaincy volunteers. To be the religious/belief site lead of their Catholic chaplaincy, if required.

  • Discern emotional and spiritual needs
  • Arrange appropriate response with available resources
  • Provide continuing support and strength
  • To be a spiritual, pastoral, cultural and ethical religious resource

 

Working for our organisation

Guy’s and St Thomas’ is one of the biggest and most successful hospital trusts in the country, with a staff of around 23,000, an annual turnover of over £2.1 billion and over 2.9 million patient contacts a year.

The Trust provides a full range of hospital services for local communities in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, as well as specialist services for those who come from further afield, including cancer, cardiothoracic, women’s and children’s services, kidney care and orthopaedics. The trust covers the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Guy’s Hospital, Harefield Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital, and St. Thomas’ Hospital. Both Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals have a long history, one dating back almost 900 years, and have been at the forefront of medical progress and innovation since they were founded. Both hospitals have built on these traditions and continue to have a reputation for excellence and innovation. We are part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a pioneering collaboration between one of the world’s leading research-led universities and three of London’s most successful NHS Foundation Trusts. Our AHSC is one of only five in the UK. It consists of King’s College London, and Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.

See www.kingshealthpartners.org

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1. To conduct services for the Catholic community in the hospitals

2. To offer funeral cover for both generic and faith specific. To arrange and lead memorial services particularly for Catholic patients and Catholic staff

3. To visit patients, offering 24 hour cover (as part of a team) for religious and spiritual needs generically and specifically for Catholic patients. To offer rites for the seriously ill, and to train trust staff in care of the Catholic patients.

Person specification

Knowledge/Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • To have degree level ordination training, or faith/belief community equivalent which is relevant for spiritual healthcare
  • To be authorised by relevant faith/belief community, and to have recognition as a religious/belief leader or as a mature leading member
  • To be registered, or to be able to register as a chaplain with UKHBC
Desirable criteria
  • To have training in healthcare chaplaincy and pastoral counselling techniques

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Experience of communication with people in situations with sensitive information and/or in distressing circumstances
  • To have some experience of counselling &/or pastoral techniques

Skills

Essential criteria
  • To have specialist faith/belief community knowledge of spiritual care issues, and to be willing to learn about major faith/belief traditions within the healthcare setting, and to be willing to represent own faith/belief within a robust multi-faith/belief and multi-cultural environment. To be able to offer this care within the trust, SLAs and community settings.
  • To have specialist knowledge of their own faith/belief community religious rites and rituals and provide the appropriate rites and rituals and care, particularly with the regard to death and the dying, the seriously ill, and birth rites
  • Ability to communicate with people in situations with sensitive information and/or in trauma/distressing circumstances
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and ability to work as part of a team and operate effectively in a multidisciplinary environment
  • To be highly flexible and be willing to work with multi-faith/belief colleagues as a be team player, and to be mentored
  • Demonstrable aptitude for pastoral care, communication and teaching about spiritual care
  • Good information presentation skills, evident in use of graphics and design of reports
Desirable criteria
  • Demonstrable interest in latest developments in NHS spiritual health care, equality and diversity and healthcare ethics

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Timewise helps businesses to attract and develop the best talent through flexible working.Care quality commission - GoodDisability confident employer

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Mia Kyte Hilborn
Job title
Hospitaller
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
02071881187
Additional information

[email protected]

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