Job Introduction
We are currently recruiting for a Managing Chaplain. You will lead and manage the multi-faith team, provide religious and pastoral care for prisoners and staff in their own faith tradition and appropriate pastoral care for all irrespective of faith tradition.
HMP/YOI Bronzefield is a closed local prison serving courts across the South of England. Our mission is to deliver quality of life services which make a meaningful difference to women in the criminal justice system by supporting them to change their lives for the better. To achieve this we focus on providing needs-based services and programmes to rehabilitate and improve the well-being of our women.
We house up to 572 women (approximately 14.5% of the national female prison population). The women in our custody have a diverse and complex set of needs and range from mothers and babies, young offenders, life and long term sentenced women, short to mid-term sentenced women, foreign nationals and women on remand.
For more information on Sodexo Careers please visit Sodexo Careers and Careers in Justice
Main Responsibilities
- Lead and manage the prison Multi Faith Chaplaincy Team ensuring Chaplains are available and accessible to prisoners
- Ensure Chaplains are receiving training and development opportunities as appropriate
- Provide pastoral care and seek to ensure spiritual welfare of prisoners and staff
- Be responsible for arranging and leading worship for own faith community
- Provide expert faith advice within establishment and be responsible for supporting the establishment in ensuring faith groups observe their religious holy days and festivals
- Responsible for leading on developing relationships with various support and volunteer groups
- Responsible for the contact strategy with outside faith based agencies to help with the resettlement of offenders
- Be responsible for planning and leading workshops and prayer/faith specific meetings
- Responsible for ensuring input into and contributing to safeguarding, allocations, referrals, inductions and Diversity Race Equality Action Team (DREAT), as appropriate
- Be responsible for ensuring and delivering awareness programmes for prisoners, including bereavement programmes and lifer programmes as applicable and local Faith awareness training for staff
- Work closely with Safer Custody to ensure issues such as deaths in custody procedures, ACCT and Violence Reduction are delivered in line with NOMS standards
- Be responsible for ensuring and contributing to, supporting prisoners in dealing with bereavement by liaising with families/prisoners and other third parties e.g. hospitals, coroners offices.
- Plan, organise hospital visits, weddings, funerals, memorial services, where appropriate
- Be responsible for ensuring and contributing to the delivery of daily statutory duties which include interviewing all new prisoners, visiting prisoners in healthcare and segregation, responding to prisoner applications and being available prior to discharge.
- Responsible for ensuring and contributing to prisoner reports including Lifer reports and Parole reports as appropriate
- Ensure effective administration of Chaplaincy, including prisoner lists for events, records updated etc.
- Provide mentoring and personal support for the other Chaplains and Volunteers following incidents
- Take responsibility for your own spiritual health and development, allowing time for private prayer, study and retreat
- Undertake a variety of advisory tasks as outlined by NOMS Chaplaincy HQ
The Ideal Candidate
- Appropriate experience in the delivery of religious services, ideally in a custodial environment that reflects the necessitation’s of the predominant faiths of the prisoner population
- Outstanding communicator with highly developed influencing skills
- Innovative and forward thinking
- Have a proven high level of professionalism and competence in religious leadership to bring to the role
- Proven experience and skills in pastoral care and pastoral leadership, including crisis events
- Must have working knowledge of other faiths represented within a prison to enable them to work in a multi faith environment.
- Focused and dynamic team player, who can adapt very rapidly to changing priorities and circumstances
- Meet NOMS specified minimum faith eligibility requirements of their faith tradition
- Education to NVQ Level 4 or equivalent
About The Company
In the UK and Ireland, Sodexo employs around 30,000 people, and partners with clients in many sectors across business and industry; schools and universities; sports and leisure; energy and resources; government and agencies; healthcare; justice and defence.
Sodexo’s connected; people-centric approach brings together a diverse range of expertise. The breadth of services it offers ranges from food and hospitality; cleaning; reception; concierge (Circles); security; property management and technical services through to data driven workplace strategy and design (Wx); employee engagement and recognition services (Sodexo Engage) and personal home services through Prestige Nursing + Care and the Good Care Group.
Sodexo is committed to being an inclusive employer; we welcome and encourage applications from people with a diverse variety of experiences, backgrounds and identities.
We’re a Disability Confident Leader employer. We’re committed to changing attitudes towards disability, and making sure disabled people have the chance to fulfil their aspirations.
We are building on our support to the Armed Forces community through the development of specific pathways within our recruitment process to support ex-forces personnel and reservists, those applying for jobs with us who meet the ideal candidate criteria for the role advertised are guaranteed to progress to the selection process
Sodexo and our clients are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults within a regulated activity. Certain roles will require applicants to undergo screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and/ or Disclosure Scotland.
Please note all roles within Sodexo Justice are subject to security and recruitment checks which may include a Social Media Check. You will also be asked to provide 5 years’ worth of references and request employment history details from the HMRC.
Package Description
Salary £37,200 - £42,800 depending on experience
37.5 Hours per week
We also offer Sodexo Discounts site promoting discounted mobile phone tariffs, savings across restaurant chains and days out, where you and your family can save money on everything from your weekly food shop to the latest cinema blockbuster and much more.
Post holders will be subjected to an advanced DBS check, a prison security check (level 2) prior to being employed