Job overview
Main duties of the job
Main Duties:
1. Provide spiritual, pastoral, and emotional support to patients, families, visitors, and staff, respecting all beliefs, faiths, or none.
2. Respond to personal or existential needs and facilitate access to other chaplains or support services when appropriate.
3. Work collaboratively with clinical teams to ensure holistic care, maintain accurate records, and contribute to service development and reflective practice.
4. Engage with local communities to support the Trust’s approach to spiritual and pastoral care.
Key Skills and Attributes:
5. Excellent interpersonal, communication, and listening skills.
6. Ability to provide compassionate support to people of all faiths, beliefs, or none.
7. Experience in pastoral, spiritual, or emotional care.
8. Flexibility, resilience, and sensitivity in responding to challenging situations.
9. Teamwork and collaborative working across clinical and non-clinical staff.
10. Commitment to ongoing professional development and reflective practice.
Working for our organisation
Why colleagues think we are
What does Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust offer you?
As part of our BHT family, you’ll benefit from learning and development opportunities to support your career progression.
Alongside NHS benefits of generous annual leave entitlement and pension scheme, you'll have access to NHS discount schemes.
We provide a range of health and wellbeing services to promote a healthy, happy workforce.
What do we stand for?
Our vision is to provide outstanding care, support healthy communities and be a great place to work.
Our mission is to provide personal and compassionate care every time.
We are working hard to increase diversity at all levels within the trust. We believe a diverse workforce can have a positive effect on both staff wellbeing and patient outcomes.
We welcome applications from black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates, candidates with disabilities and care-experienced candidates.
We make employment decisions by matching our service needs with the skills and experience of candidates, regardless of age, disability, gender, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation.
Person specification
EDUCATION, QUALIFICATIONS & TRAINING
Essential criteria
11. Endorsement, authorisation or accreditation by a recognised faith community or belief group, in accordance with the requirements for healthcare chaplaincy recognised by the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy and the Network for Pastoral, Spiritual and Religious Care in Health.
12. Educated to degree level in Theology, Religious Studies, Chaplaincy, Pastoral Care, or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.
13. Registered with the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy, or eligible for and committed to working towards registration.
Desirable criteria
14. Postgraduate qualification (MA or Postgraduate Diploma) in Healthcare Chaplaincy, Spiritual Care, Theology, or a related discipline.
15. Evidence of recognised training or formation in pastoral or spiritual care appropriate to healthcare settings (e.g. supervised practice or placement experience).
EXPERIENCE
Essential criteria
16. Significant experience of providing pastoral, spiritual or religious care within a faith community or pastoral setting.
17. Experience of working collaboratively within multi-professional teams.
18. Experience of supporting individuals and families facing illness, loss, distress or bereavement.
19. Experience of offering pastoral or spiritual care within healthcare or other institutional settings (e.g. hospitals, hospices, prisons, universities, or community services).
SKILLS, ABILITIES & KNOWLEDGE
Essential criteria
20. Knowledge of national guidance for healthcare chaplaincy, including the NHS Chaplaincy Guidelines 2015 and professional standards of the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy.
SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
Essential criteria
21. Willingness and ability to participate in a 24-hour, 7-day on-call rota, including weekends and public holidays.
22. Flexibility to respond to urgent pastoral needs and to support occasional services in the evenings or on Sundays, including major incidents or other unplanned events.
PPE requirements: Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust requires all colleagues to wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) in accordance with our infection prevention and control procedures.
COVID-19 and Flu vaccinations remain the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the viruses when working in our healthcare settings. We encourage our staff to be vaccinated when recommended.
Application deadline: This post will close on the closing date stated at midnight, however if we receive a large number of applications or there is a change in circumstance, we may be required to close a job before the advertised date.
Application information: If you are offered a job, information will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records (ESR) system.
Shortlisting: The monitoring and safeguarding sections are not made visible to the shortlisting panel. The safeguarding section may be made visible to the interview panel, dependent on the role being recruited into.
Travel expenses: It is Trust policy that travel expenses for interviews will not be reimbursed.
Smoking: All Trust sites are NO SMOKING. Smoking in all areas of the buildings and premises is prohibited.
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