* 37.5 hours per week, working Monday to Friday - some flexibility to support events & particular family circumstances
* Present across all three hospice sites weekly.
EACH is looking for a Spiritual Care Lead to join our Wellbeing & Spiritual Care team, working across our three hospices. This is a unique opportunity to help shape and strengthen spiritual care provision within a warm, supportive, multidisciplinary environment.
Are you:
* Passionate about supporting children, young people, and families through some of the most profound moments in life?
* Compassionate, emotionally aware, and inclusive in order to offer spiritual and holistic support to people of all faiths and none?
* Someone who naturally brings warmth, presence, and emotional depth to your relationships with families, children, and staff?
* Comfortable navigating conversations around meaning, identity, grief, and hope- always with sensitivity and respect for all beliefs.
Do you have experience of:
* Providing spiritual, pastoral, counselling, or emotional support in a healthcare, education, community or faith setting.
* Providing spiritual support to those experiencing illness, grief, bereavement and loss; a background in trauma-informed practice.
* Working with babies, children and young people and their families
and
* Knowledge of a range of religions, faiths, beliefs and cultural practices acquired through a relevant degree or equivalent level training and experience.
Main duties of the job
What Youll Do:
* Provide compassionate, inclusive spiritual and emotional support to children, young people, and families.
* Support staff wellbeing through reflective spaces, debriefing, and presence.
* Deliver training on spiritual care during education days and staff development sessions.
* Build relationships with local faith and belief communities to enhance understanding of hospice care and widen support options for families.
* Develop and supervise a team of spiritual care and chaplaincy volunteers, increasing diversity across religions and cultures.
* Hold reflective or commemorative spaces.
* Support key hospice events such as Baby Loss Awareness Week and annual Memory Days.
* Represent the hospice at community events, networks, and partnerships relating to spiritual care.
What We Offer:
* A deeply meaningful role where you can truly make a difference
* Supportive, reflective supervision and team culture
* Opportunities for professional development in paediatric spiritual care
* The chance to contribute to a growing spiritual care service
Closing Date: 12 April 2026
Interview date: 20 April 2026
About us
Comprehensive range of benefits:
* Free onsite parking & subsidised meals at our hospices
* Pool car provided when working in the community
* NHS pension - continuation if already contributing
* Enhanced Annual leave Entitlement - 27 days + 8 UK Bank Holidays
* AVIVA pension package up to 7% Employer Contribution including Life Assurance
* Free eye tests & cycle to work scheme
East Anglia's Children's Hospices (EACH) supports families and cares for children and young people with life threatening conditions across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.
At EACH we believe in fostering a workplace where every individual feels valued and respected. We are committed to building a culture of inclusion where differences are embraced. We are actively seeking talent from all walks of life, recognising that diversity drives innovation, creativity and success.
Join us on a journey to create a more inclusive workplace, where everyone has equal opportunities to grow, contribute and succeed. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds to apply for opportunities at EACH and adjustments will be made to facilitate the application and selection process.
Job responsibilities
Job Summary:
The Spiritual Care Lead providescompassionate, inclusive, spiritual and emotional support to children, youngpeople and families across all three hospice sites. The role ensures thatspiritual care is consistently available, contributing to holistic wellbeingand strengthening connections with local faith communities. It also supportsstaff through reflective practice and wellbeingfocused approaches.
In addition, the Spiritual Care Lead willrecruit, develop and supervise a team of spiritual care and chaplaincyvolunteers, offering clear guidance to ensure support is accessible to peopleof diverse beliefs and backgrounds. The role also provides training and adviceto care teams, embedding meaning, belonging, hope, ritual and personalspirituality into the childs and families experience
Responsibilities
Provide vision and leadership for thedevelopment of spiritual care in EACH acting as an expert advisor and resourcefor staff, volunteers and families as required.
Build and maintain professionalrelationships with local faith leaders, belief communities and cultural groupsacross each hospice region.
Improve mutual understanding of hospicecare and ensure families can access community-specific spiritual support whendesired.
Promote and facilitate an approach toholistic care ensuring spiritual care needs are integrated into themulti-disciplinary approach to care respecting all beliefs, cultures andidentities.
Take a lead role in groups and activitiesincluding annual Memory Day Services, Baby Loss week, Remembering with Love andother bereavement events held for families at each locality and to activelycontribute to the planning and de-brief meetings for these days.
In partnership with the spiritual care andchaplaincy volunteers, ensure the resources and knowledge are in place so thatthe spiritual needs of babies, children, young people and their families areassessed and met as an integral part of hospice and palliative care.
Ensure care is inclusive of all faiths andall spiritual beliefs.
Conduct and facilitate celebrations andceremonies for children and families.
Support memory-making, keepsake activitiesand meaningful rituals (religious and non-religious).
Support the spiritual care and chaplainvolunteers to support the hospice team in delivering spiritual care within thelocality ensuring that they deliver safe, inclusive, high-quality spiritualcare in line with hospice values and policies.
Provide compassionate listening andpresence during times of uncertainty, transition, end of life and bereavementto children, young people and their families; informed by the service userpreferred location/day/time to meet spiritual care related needs.
On occasions, provide support to thoseexperiencing more complex or severe spiritual care needs under the supervisionof the Locality Wellbeing Lead.
Provide general support to those who areexperiencing mild and moderate distress by offering advice and support such assignposting to relevant information sources, helping with the creation ofjourney and memory boxes, providing practical advice and support around thetime of death and into bereavement.
Hold commemorative and reflective spacesfollowing a childs death, or during end of life care, tailored to the familystraditions and needs.
Maintain dedicated reflective spaces e.g.the Havens and develop reflective gardens at each of the sites.
Ensure all spiritual care interactions aresensitively recorded on SystmOne.
TeamWorking
Attend multi-disciplinary meetings,including daily care planning and act as a resource for other members of theteam with regards to spiritual care.
Build and maintain effective relationshipswithin and across teams in EACH and external professionals.
Develop and maintain effective workingrelationships with local agencies providing spiritual care resources andservices pertinent to hospice and palliative care, keeping up to date withdevelopments in spiritual care and updating practice accordingly.
Recognise and report challenging areas andwork with others to find improvements and/or resolutions.
Recruit, supervise and appraise identifiedvolunteers.
Provide individual or group reflectivespace for staff and volunteers.
Contribute to a culture of where staffwellbeing and holistic care are actively valued.
ProfessionalResponsibility
Fulfil professional clinical supervisionrequirements.
Maintain an up to date knowledge of bestpractice in safeguarding and the identification of potential risk for allchildren, young people, families and significant others whilst upholdingsafeguarding responsibilities and maintaining appropriate boundaries at alltimes.
Keep up to date with professionaldevelopments in the provision of spiritual care and specialist palliative care.
Represent the hospice at community events,networks, and partnerships relating to spiritual care.
Make recommendations for developingknowledge, skills and resources within EACH which are informed by the outcomesof audit and feedback from service users and staff.
Provide practise supervision / reflectivepractise where required.
Develop an awareness of own personalresponses in relation to the maintenance of a safe environment andidentification of potential risk for all personnel, patients and significantothers.
Educationand Governance Activities
Develop accessible resources to supportstaff understanding of diverse beliefs, rituals, and cultural practices.
Provide the method and tools by which EACHmonitors the effectiveness of spiritual care provision.
Support staff to recognise and respond tospiritual care needs in everyday care.
Design and deliver EACH in-servicetraining and awareness events as required e.g. education, PEOLC and inductiondays.
Participate in relevant clinicalgovernance activities within EACH.
Participate in student placementprogrammes where appropriate.
Where required contribute to the EACHaudit programme.
Provide statistical information asrequired.
Person Specification
Experience
* Experience providing spiritual, pastoral, counselling, or emotional support in a healthcare, education, community or faith setting.
* Experience of providing spiritual support to those experiencing illness, grief, bereavement and loss; a background in trauma-informed practice.
* Experience of working with babies, children and young people and their families
* Evidence of working within a professional multi-disciplinary team.
* Experience of managing and supervising staff and volunteers.
* Experience of coordinating and leading spiritual care events or activities.
* Experience of working with and building relationships with multi-faiths and belief systems.
* Experience of working in a palliative or health care service
* Experience of providing spiritual care services in a childrens care setting.
* Experience of delivering care virtually.
* Experience of SystmOne or patient management systems.
Skills & Abilities Other Requirements
* Able to provide training to staff in spiritual care
* Able to provide group facilitation
* Excellent communication and record-keeping skills, including digital systems e.g. SystmOne
* Current full, valid driving license and own transport
Qualifications
* Knowledge of a range of religions, faiths, beliefs and cultural practices acquired through a relevant degree or equivalent level training and experience.
* Understanding of safeguarding policies and procedures and the importance of safeguarding babies, children, young people and vulnerable adults.
* Active member of the Hospice and Palliative Care Forum (HPCF) of the College of Health Care Chaplains (CHCC)
Skills & Abilities
* The ability to deliver inclusive spiritual care to people of all faiths and none - respecting the belief system of others.
* Skills in listening, presence, emotional intelligence and holding sensitive conversations.
* The ability to meet others at their point of need and respond in ways which are meaningful and appropriate.
* Ability to work autonomously and as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
* Ability to recognise and solve complex challenges.
* Ability to manage a complex caseload.
* Ability to offer mentoring to chaplains on placement
* Ability to make use of clinical supervision
* Ability to maintain confidentiality
* Advanced communication skills both orally and in writing
* Able to provide training to staff in spiritual care
* Able to provide group facilitation
Additional Criteria
* Knowledge of a range of religions, faiths, beliefs and cultural practices acquired through a relevant degree or equivalent level training and experience.
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.
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