Job summary
- Main area
- Chaplaincy
- Grade
- Band 5
- Contract
- Bank
- Hours
- Flexible working - 0 hours per week (As and When Required)
- Job ref
- 350-TWSBANK6972065
- Employer
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Hollins Park Hospital
- Town
- Winwick
- Salary
- £29,970 - £36,483 pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 24/02/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 26/02/2025
Employer heading
Bank Assistant Chaplain/Assistant Pastoral Support Worker
Band 5
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Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnic minorities, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
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Job overview
The Spiritual and Pastoral Care Team provides religious, spiritual and non-religious pastoral care to service users, carers and staff throughout Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
This innovative team is led by the Director of Social Health & Community Inclusion with Senior and Co-ordinating Chaplains managing the provision within their service areas, supported by Chaplains/Pastoral Support Workers and in some areas religious & non-religious Volunteers.
Main duties of the job
In order to increase the diversity of our religious, spiritual and pastoral care service, we have Bank/Additional Staffing Roles available across the Trust offering the opportunity to work in a variety of mental health inpatient services to increase and enhance the spiritual & pastoral care to service users, carers and staff within Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust. The Trust has a wide range of mental health, older adult, learning disability, drugs & alcohol, physical health community services and secure forensic units across Merseyside. The postholder will be based at sites across the Trust including Liverpool, Sefton & Warrington. There will be a requirement to travel throughout the Trust footprint.
The post holder will have responsibility for providing pastoral and spiritual or religious care as required, and where appropriate offering, or referring service users to faith based ministry and worship or to appropriate non-religious care and support networks. The post holder will work in collaboration with other members of the team, mental health professionals, local faith representatives and professional visitors in order to provide or enable the provision of appropriate religious, spiritual & pastoral care to people of all faith and those of no religion or belief. They will be expected to support the team’s work around quality and innovation.
We would particularly encourage applications from Buddhist, Jewish, Pagan, Humanist and multifaith candidates
Working for our organisation
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Applicants must be either:-
An established and active member of any recognised faith tradition They must be experienced in spiritual and pastoral care, of “good standing” in their tradition in accordance with the Practical Guide – Endorsement of NHS Pastoral, Spiritual and Religious (Chaplaincy) Staff and Volunteers and formally accredited to lead worship within their tradition.
OR
An experienced Pastoral Support Worker, accredited, or with the ability to be accredited, as a member in good standing by the Non-Religious Pastoral Support Network in accordance with the Practical Guide – Endorsement of NHS Pastoral, Spiritual and Religious (Chaplaincy) Staff and Volunteers with a cohesive naturalistic and non-religious system of values and beliefs that are serious, genuinely and sincerely held and worthy of respect in a democratic society.
Knowledge and awareness of professional boundaries is essential. Applicants will be flexible and imaginative innovators capable of implementing new ideas and practices for enhancing, spiritual, religious and non-religious care in mental health settings.
All candidates must have excellent communication skills both verbal and written and a good standard of IT capability. All candidates must be committed to working in a multi-faith and belief, ecumenical and inter-disciplinary context.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Degree level or equivalent experience in a relevant area.
- Evidence of on-going professional development
Desirable criteria
- Other professional education
- Counselling Qualification
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Knowledge of current issues relevant to mental health
- A person capable of being approved for ministry by a Recognised Faith Tradition e.g., for Christians a member church of Churches Together In Britain and Ireland OR a person capable of being accredited as a pastoral support worker through the Non-Religious Support Network.
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of recovery approaches within mental health.
- Knowledge of co-production principles.
- Knowledge of the dynamics of team working within a chaplaincy setting
Experience
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable pastoral experience.
- Experience of working within a team
Desirable criteria
- Demonstrable pastoral experience in a healthcare setting.
- Mental Health/Learning Disability/Addictions experience
- Experience of working within a therapeutic setting
- Experience of managing change
- Experience of multi-disciplinary working
Values
Essential criteria
- Continuous Improvement
- Accountability
- Respectfulness
- Enthusiasm
- Support
- High professional standards
- Responsive to service users
- Engaging leadership style
- Strong customer service belief
- Transparency and honesty
- Discreet
- Change oriented
- Active member of their faith community, taking responsibility for their spiritual growth and renewal OR an active member of an organisation that has non-religious beliefs that are serious, genuinely and sincerely held and worthy of respect in a democratic society (e.g. Humanists UK).
Skills
Essential criteria
- Excellent written & verbal communication skills
- Strong interpersonal skills
- Ability to understand boundaries surrounding professional roles
- Ability and willingness to work in an ecumenical and multi-faith team
- IT/Computer literate
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
- Niall Cotter
- Job title
- Senior Chaplain
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07867447195
- Additional information
If unable to get through to Niall via telephone, please leave a voice message and Niall will return your call as soon as possible.
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