Lead Chaplain

Are you a caring chaplain, and a creative catalyst for spirituality in finding confidence and hope?

Location: Basildon, Essex

Salary: Circa £40,000 per annum, pro rata (inclusive London Fringe Weighting)

Hours: Part-time 11.25 hours per week

Our Lead Spiritual Wellbeing Chaplain appointment is an opportunity for an experienced Chaplain:

• to work the engaging patients and a diverse team, in developing spirituality as part of mental healthcare
• to be a significant part of our specialist mental health chaplaincy
• to grow strategic chaplaincy leadership skills.

Our Charity

St Andrew’s Healthcare is a charity providing specialist mental healthcare services with sites in Northampton, Birmingham and Basildon.. We work in partnership with a number of NHS, voluntary, educational and research organisations to deliver a range of specialist inpatient and community mental healthcare services, education and research that helps to improve the lives of people with complex mental health needs.

Our Chaplaincy Team

For over 160 years, Spirituality and Faith have played a key role in our patient care. Our existing Spiritual Wellbeing Chaplaincy team consists of full and part-time staff, volunteers and contractors who develop the use of spirituality and faith resources in recovery and wholeness. We are excited about opportunities for spiritual wellbeing to grow with diverse lived experience. We are creating new avenues of chaplaincy as the Mental Healthcare context changes.

The Role

The post-holder will provide spiritual wellbeing patient care and be responsible for a small multi faith Chaplaincy Team at St Andrew’s Essex, our Hospital with 6 wards which is about 3 miles east of Basildon Town Centre.

You will work collaboratively with clinical teams to help male and female adults on their journey of recovery. Most patients have been detained under the Mental Health Act.

You will receive support from the Head of Spiritual Wellbeing Chaplaincy and the full national team. Meetings and training will sometimes take place in Northampton.

About You

To be successful in applying for this post, you will have Chaplaincy team experience and an appreciation of Spirituality’s diverse contribution to mental wellbeing. Educated to graduate level (or equivalent) you will also have recognised training and accreditation from your host faith/belief community, and be in good standing with them.

• You will enjoy working with different professional healthcare disciplines. You will understand the benefits of diverse spiritualities. You will respect individual experience.
• You will demonstrate that you can listen well. You can use your thinking on the spiritual, existential and ethical issues surrounding life events to help both people, and the organisation, explore meaning and purpose.
• You will have knowledge of local faith / spiritual communities and resources.
• You will have integrity and be sympathetic to the overall aims of the Charity. You will be prepared to follow the values and expectations of the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy.
• You will need to have some flexibility: weekend / bank holiday working and out of hours duty may be occasionally required. You will enjoy a degree of autonomy and be able to manage some self-care.

Next Steps

You will report to the Head of Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care, Peter Sellick, and will receive full support and supervision. If you would like to speak to him informally about this opportunity you can contact him on 01604 616413 / 07790 891524 and pjsellick@stah.org.

In order to obtain an application form, and view the job description and person specification please contact pjsellick@stah.org or email our Recruitment Team at recruitment@stah.org.

Closing Date: 20 March 2023