Job summary
- Main area
- Chaplain/Keyworker
- Grade
- Band 6
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Job share
- Flexible working
- Home or remote working
- Compressed hours
- Job ref
- 203-C577
- Employer
- South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Warwick Hospital
- Town
- Warwick
- Salary
- £39,959 - £48,117 Per annum (Dependant on experience)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 29/07/2026 23:59
- Interview date
- 10/08/2026
Employer heading
Chaplain/Keyworker
Band 6
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is one of the top performing organisations within the NHS. Our staff think this is a great place to work and we hope you will agree. We have recently been rated as 'Outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following our most recent inspection.
We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the whole county. This includes our Community Teams in North Warwickshire.
We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity. Over 6000 people work for the Trust and many of them have been here a long time. People find they don’t need to go elsewhere to find a fulfilling career in healthcare.
The first thing you will notice about us is how we take our values seriously. We believe that our values underpin everything we do. If you are interested in a role with us you need to make sure our values match your own.
Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are ‘Trusted to provide inclusive, safe, effective and compassionate care’. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn’t matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Checks
Many of the roles we advertise have a requirement for a DBS check to be carried out. If you are successful for a role and it requires a DBS check the Trust will carry out the initial check and subscription to the DBS Update Service, however successful candidates will be expected to cover the associated costs . Details of this will be sent to successful candidates in their offer letter.
Probationary Period
All new staff to the Trust will be subject to a standard 6 month probationary period, the details of which will duly follow in your contract of employment.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is committed to creating and sustaining a positive and inclusive working environment for all our employees. Our aim is to ensure that employees are equally valued and respected and that our organisation is representative of all members of society. We define diversity as valuing everyone as an individual – we value our employees, job applicants, students, patients and visitors as people. This is reflected within our values of being Inclusive, Safe, Effective, Compassionate and Trusted.
As part of our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion we encourage all applicants to complete a short survey. This can be accessed via the link below:
https://forms.office.com/e/ahWY3eAGM2
We appreciate you completing the survey.
Agile and Flexible Working
All our staff will have a work base. However the Trust operates as an Agile Working Team therefore staff may be working from home on a regular basis as required by the service. However, occasionally travel around Warwickshire and into your base will be required so access to your own transport would be helpful.
The Trust also welcome staff to work flexibly and we would welcome the conversation at interview regarding flexible working.
Staff Benefits
The Trust offer a wide range of additional benefits to staff. Anyone who joins us on a substantive basis can assess things such as the Lease Car Scheme, Electronics Scheme, Discounted Leisure and Travel, Cycle to work scheme amongst many others available.
Car Parking
The Trust currently have limited availability of car parking spaces, as such are operating a waiting list for new starters joining the organisation.
To keep up to date on our latest recruitment activity follow us on twitter @swftrecruit or look us up on Facebook (Recruitment - South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust).
Visa Sponsorship
The Trust will only consider sponsoring staff for certain roles, however this will be considered on a case by case basis in line with current legislation. As an employer we are unable to offer sponsorship to all roles in particular we cannot offer sponsorship for roles below Band 5.
Job overview
We are seeking to appoint a chaplain of any faith tradition, or person with equivalent skills and experience, to join our team and to have particular responsibility for supporting families of children who are palliative or who have been bereaved, acting as their keyworker when a child dies. The post holder will be based in the SWFT chaplaincy team but will work closely with the community children’s nursing team and will be part of their MDT. They will also work closely with the acute paediatric nursing team. .
They will support staff who care for very sick and dying children, and provide training for bereavement support, compassionate conversations, and staff wellbeing. They will help staff in the identification of spiritual and religious need.
We expect this unique post to be filled by a chaplain, however we recognise that there may be someone with similar skills and aptitudes, but different professional training, who may also wish to apply. We encourage all applications and welcome conversation before submitting your application.
This post will build on the foundations laid by previous post-holders and it gives opportunity for some truly creative and collaborative work to make a real difference to families who are going through very difficult and complex times.
Main duties of the job
The Team Chaplain is to work with the whole Chaplaincy team in the delivery of pastoral, spiritual and religious care to all patients, their relatives and staff.
Working for our organisation
Come and join a Trust rated Outstanding by the CQC. South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as outstanding following our latest inspection by the CQC and we are recruiting new staff to come and help us improve even further. In addition our staff survey results have placed us 4th in the country for recommended place to work.
We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the county. We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity.
Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are ‘Trusted to provide safe, inclusive, effective and compassionate care’. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn’t matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.
As part of our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion we encourage all applicants to complete a short survey. This can be accessed via the link below:
https://forms.office.com/e/ahWY3eAGM2
We appreciate you completing the survey.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Knowledge, Training and Expertise
Assist and advise external partners, e.g. representatives of faith communities, in the pastoral care of their people while in hospital, and to receive information from them, always observing the rules of confidentiality by which every NHS employee is bound
Contribute to the development of spiritual healthcare in a multi-faith setting, being sensitive to and aware of the varying pastoral, spiritual and religious needs of diverse ethnic groups, and to assist staff on responding to their needs.
Adhere to the Code of Professional Conduct (2024) of the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplains and of the College of HealthCare Chaplains
Communication Skills and Working Relationships
Be an informed, visible, and active presence in the Trust, visiting wards or departments frequently; ensuring that the pastoral, spiritual and religious needs of patients, staff and relatives are met.
Communicate clearly and empathetically with patients, relatives and staff at all times.
To use advanced communication skills and inter-personal skills to give and receive complex information often in sensitive or intense situations, e.g. following receipt of bad news or where there may be barriers to understanding or acceptance
Work with the early pregnancy, maternity and neonatal teams to offer support to parents and families experiencing baby loss at any stage of gestation, or the care of extremely ill babies.
Actively offer a ministry of encouragement to staff and offer time and space for supportive listening and counsel when sought
Help patients, relatives and staff articulate their pastoral, spiritual or religious needs and identify resources to address them
Ensure that the prayer rooms, Chapel and Oasis are properly maintained and accessible to all.
Analytical and Judgement Skills
Contribute to education programs within the Trust to enhance understanding of spiritual, cultural, and religious needs of patients and staff
Provide support to members of multi-disciplinary teams engaged in pastoral and spiritual assessment or referral, to help this become a standard part of patient care
Planning and Organisational Skills
Plan and organise own workload
Ensure that suitable religious services, rites, and ceremonies are made available to all who require them, without discrimination and in consultation with ward staff and the patient’s religious community as appropriate.
Plan, organise and conduct adult contract funerals, baby funerals (at any stage of gestation) thanksgiving, memorial, and other services as required
Freedom to Act
Initiate and take responsibility for own work pattern within the parameters of national standards and Trust polices
Attend appropriate meetings related to work, both inside and outside the Trust
Be a part of the Chaplaincy response within the Trust’s major incident plans and response.
Management Responsibility
Supervise trainee chaplains and chaplaincy volunteers as required
Responsibility for Patient Care
Provide specialised advice, and pastoral/spiritual/religious support to patients and their relatives
Make provision for complex spiritual, pastoral or religious needs of patents, relatives and staff, especially those who are unable to engage with their usual place or manner of worship
Help patients, relative or staff articulate their pastoral, spiritual ad religious needs and identify resources to address them
Be readily available and supportive to relatives and patients, particularly those who are bereaved or struggling with diagnosis, and those who are close to the end of life, to ensure that sensitive, efficient, and appropriate pastoral or spiritual care is given at all times.
Respond to the practical and existential needs arising from the impact of illness, death and dying on individuals and families
To facilitate, when requested, visits to patients by their own faith leader
Responsibility for Policy/Service Development
Assist in providing a comprehensive spiritual, pastoral and religious care service to the Trust, including provision of spiritual healthcare information
Share responsibility for the implementation of policy and service development within Trust parameters
Share in the implementation of pastoral, spiritual and religious healthcare polices
Contribute to the professional development of the chaplaincy team
Develop interests in specific areas of healthcare
Review own working practice in conjunction with line manager, and propose changes as appropriate
Contribute to making the hospital a place of equality for people of all faiths, beliefs, spiritualities and none.
Responsibility for Financial and Physical Resource
Handle donations to chaplaincy from members of the public as needed, ensuring all correct procedures are followed
Responsibility for Information Resources
Maintain adequate notes of referrals and work done, on chaplaincy work record and, where appropriate, in patient medical notes
Access Lorenzo, Badgernet, Digit and EPR for patient information Responsibility for Research and Development
Undertake surveys and audits necessary for own work and for research and development purposes
Physical Skills/Physical Effort
The post holder needs to be able to access wards and departments and be at ease by a patient’s bedside. There is also a degree of computer and desk work
Accompany relatives in viewing of deceased patients in the mortuary
Mental Effort
The work pattern is unpredictable and there are frequent interruptions. The post holder needs to be able to prioritise, and re-prioritise at speed
Emotional Effort
The post holder needs to be able to handle highly distressing or emotional circumstances, eg in supporting patients, relatives or staff following terminal illness, bereavement, or sudden death of infants or children.
The post holder needs to have a developed self awareness and commitment to seeking help when needed
The post holder needs to be able to respond and minister with integrity to people who hold a philosophy, belief or faith system different to their own
Engage in regular reflective practice
Maintain a strong patient focus throughout the course of the patient’s care in hospital
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Bachelor’s Degree (or equivalent work or life experience) with demonstrable learning in a relevant field such as counselling, pastoral care, psychology, psychotherapy, religious studies or theology.
- Endorsement to practice as a healthcare chaplain by a recognized/established sponsoring faith community or belief group.
- Evidence of annual continued professional development relevant to healthcare chaplaincy to UKBHC standards
Desirable criteria
- Post-graduate qualification (or equivalent life or work experience or working towards) with demonstrable outcomes of learning relevant to healthcare chaplaincy
- Registration, or ability to be registered with the UKBHC
- Qualification (or working towards) in pastoral supervision (such as those recommended by APSE), coaching, management or leadership
Experience
Essential criteria
- At least 2 years full time experience, or equivalent, of working as a designated healthcare chaplain
Desirable criteria
- Experience of supervising volunteers
Skills
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable knowledge of tenets of own faith/belief tradition
- Knowledge of and engagement with faith/belief traditions beyond own
- Evidence of proactive practice of CPD
- Knowledge of current research in healthcare chaplaincy
- Evidence of offering spiritual care beyond own faith/belief boundaries with evidence of commitment to an inclusive approach to chaplaincy
- Evidence of reflecting critically on the practice and experience of providing pastoral care, and on finding/searching for meaning through exploration of spiritual issues encountered in sickness, mental health, dying, death and bereavement
- Evidence of the ability to manage time prioritizing workload including a commitment to continuity of service provision
Desirable criteria
- Engagement with safeguarding, information governance, audit, service evaluation or research
- Training in research, audit and service evaluation
- Ability to deliver training at a variety of levels
- Ability to adapt ritual (which can come from a variety of sources) in an appropriate style to context in clinical environments
- Cultural competence and religious literacy in diverse religious, spiritual and pastoral traditions
- Ability to lead reflective practice
- Act as an informed theological/philosophical and ethical resource in complex pastoral and clinical situations
- Evidence of self-care to enhance resilience or manage stress – e.g. meditation, prayer, exercise, journalling, reflective supervision
Personal Qualities
Essential criteria
- Evidence of working collaboratively, contributing to team and sustaining positive working relationships with colleagues
- Evidence of establishing and sustaining relationships in pastorally complex and challenging environments, demonstrating empathy and compassion while taking personal responsibility and initiative
- Evidence of fluent and effective communication in speech and writing
- Evidence of practising professionally within recognised boundaries in [pastorally diverse settings (as set out in the Code of Conduct)
- Ability to create and lead ritual or other spiritual process in a way that is sensitive to the pastoral context and faith/belief traditions of those present
- Possession of a professional chaplaincy identity rooted in ones one religious/spiritual/pastoral heritage that integrates professional values and behaviours, skills and specialist knowledge
- Emotional availability, cultural humility, and a positive use of power and authority, within clear and responsible boundaries
- A high degree of personal stability and resilience to cope with significant stress on a sustained basis
- Ability to apply theoretical knowledge or ethical issues relating to health care
- Commitment to work within UKBHC Code of Conduct
Other
Essential criteria
- Access to own transport
- Ability to attend an urgent on-call referral, out of hours, within 60 minutes
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
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
- Rev Ricarda Witcombe
- Job title
- Lead Chaplain
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07876577993
- Additional information
For an informal conversation, please call Rev Ricarda Witcombe, Lead Chaplain on 07876 577993 or email [email protected]
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