23417 - Managing Chaplain Grendon and Spring Hill

Guiding faith and people at Grendon & Spring Hill

The day-to-day focuses on steering the chaplaincy team and ensuring both prisoners and staff can access spiritual care. You’ll oversee the administration of chaplaincy activities, manage event lists and records, and promote adherence to HMPPS policy in every action and behaviour. You will also lead the handling of prisoners’ complaints related to the Chaplaincy and carry out investigations into potential discrimination, reporting your findings when needed.

Mentoring and development sit at the heart of the role. You’ll ensure chaplains and volunteers receive necessary training and personal support, including after incidents, and you’ll take responsibility for the team’s performance against qualitative and quantitative standards. You’ll attend relevant boards or meetings, contribute as chair or member, and prepare timely reports while ensuring replies are sent within agreed timescales.

Pastoral care and worship form a core element of the job. You’ll provide spiritual welfare for prisoners and staff, arrange and lead worship or meditation for your faith community, and coordinate hospital visits, weddings, funerals and memorial services where appropriate. You’ll also support offenders on release or those involved in community initiatives, and you’ll be the go-to adviser on faith/belief matters, scheduling workshops and faith-specific meetings, while delivering awareness programmes for staff and prisoners during holy days and festivals.

Must-have capabilities

• Evidence of leading a multi-faith chaplaincy team and making chaplaincy services accessible to prisoners
• Experience structuring chaplaincy operations and aligning them with policy goals on diversity, safety and reducing re-offending
• Proven ability to manage prisoner complaints, including discrimination-related investigations
• Skill in training and mentoring chaplains and volunteers, plus offering support after incidents
• Ability to measure performance, prepare reports and use chaplaincy data to inform boards and decisions

Nice-to-have extras

• Experience arranging and leading worship, meditations or faith-based services in hospital or community settings
• Ability to advise on faith/belief matters and plan for religious holy days and festivals
• Track record delivering faith-aware training and awareness programmes for staff
• Background supporting offenders on release or involved in community initiatives

Pay, benefits and practical details

The position carries a salary of £54,148 per year and is full-time, with standard hours of 37 per week excluding unpaid breaks. There are additional allowances linked to weekend and evening work (RHA) and an excess fares provision for this post.

Working arrangements can include hybrid options where the business needs permit, but the role must be performed in the UK at MoJ premises; arrangements will be discussed and reviewed after appointment. The post sits in the Midlands region, at Aylesbury, and is a permanent SEO-grade appointment. The Civil Service offers a pension with two schemes and supports flexible working patterns after probation. After two months’ service, you may apply for a season ticket advance. Leave includes an annual entitlement with additional bank, public and privilege holidays; some holidays may be required depending on the shift pattern and operational needs.

Security and eligibility checks are required for all candidates: standard DBS and Counter Terrorism checks are part of the process, and all applicants must meet the Civil Service’s recruitment standards. Nationality rules apply, with eligibility extending to UK nationals, Irish nationals, Commonwealth nationals with the right to work in the UK, and certain EU/EEA/Swiss family members under the EU Settlement Scheme. A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from the date of appointment and further appointments may be made from it.

If you need assistance during the application, you can call the MoJ recruitment helpline at 0345 241 5359 (Mon–Fri, 8am–6pm) or email [email protected] and quote job reference 23417. HMPPS inquiries can be directed to the same address or the separate line 0345 241 5358, again with the reference 23417. The closing date, 07-Nov-2026, should be noted in all communications.

Advice for applicants

Lead with your experience managing a multi-faith chaplaincy and the administrative backbone that keeps chaplaincy programs running, such as event planning and maintaining prisoner records. Put that leadership and operational capability up front on your resume so it’s the first thing the reviewer sees.

When you describe your must-have skills, back them with concrete examples: how you handled prisoner complaints or discrimination inquiries, how you trained and mentored staff and volunteers, and how you used data to drive improvements in service delivery and reporting to boards.

Be prepared for a board-style interview that tests leadership, collaboration, decision-making and the ability to communicate across diverse teams. If you can share a moment when you steered a challenging policy or programme to a successful outcome, you’ll demonstrate the kind of impact this role expects.

Plan a thoughtful question to ask at interview time about practical matters such as how hybrid working might be arranged or how success for the chaplaincy team is measured in day-to-day operations. Also be ready to discuss the security checks you’ll undergo and what you’d need to support a smooth start in this civil-service environment.