Spiritual, Pastoral & Religious Care Service; SPARCS Lead

Spiritual, Pastoral & Religious Care Service (SPARCS) Lead 1128

Employer: NHS Jobs

Location: Stoke-on-Trent, ST3 3NZ

Pay: £38,000.00 to £42,000.00 per year

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: Full time

Disability Confident: No

Closing Date: 20/03/2026

• Working collaboratively with the wider clinical Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) in the provision of specialist palliative and end of life care needs for hospice service users and those important to them.
• Promote and deliver service user chosen interventions which contribute to and improve wellbeing.
• Use initiative and creativity to provide person-centered holistic care.
• Be responsible for oversight of the Spiritual Space, its maintenance and use, as a place of quiet, reflection or rest available for all regardless of faith or belief identification.
• Be aware of the national regulations and guidance relating to spiritual, pastoral and religious care for palliative care providers and lead the hospice in compliance with current good practice as far as possible within the resources available.
• Line manage the SPARCS (Community) Practitioner.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of effective mechanisms for communicating information concerning patient care including the completion of accurate and comprehensive records.
• Ensure effective communication with outside agencies and work positively with colleagues to maintain effective relationships.
• Contribute towards storing, ordering, and managing stock.
• Assist in the planning and implementing of group work with service users.
• Maintain sensitivity to the emotional needs of patients and those important to them, carers and health care professionals.
• Organise and/or lead occasional ceremonies (e.g. Funeral, Weddings etc.) for patients on request, wherever appropriate informing the relevant faith leaders/representative.
• Organise and/or deliver ritual care as requested by service user, informing the relevant faith leader/representative where appropriate.
• Organise occasional special/seasonal ceremonies to celebrate the life and work of the Hospice.
• Work with the Fundraising in organising and participating in the annual Light up a Life ceremony.
• Lead in organising comprehensive spiritual care assessments to provide service users the opportunity to express what's important to them, inform the holistic aspect of the hospice care and improve quality of interventions.
• Lead in the delivery of Out of Hours cover; ensuring that the In-patient services are aware of the process for assessing need, and how to contact appropriate support.
• To recognise and manage the potentially distressing effects of working with terminal illness, maintaining personal resilience while accessing the support, guidance, and resources available through the hospice.
• Lead the development of the SPARCS provision to reflect the communities we serve.
• Organise meetings for the SPARCS Steering Group, a multi-disciplinary group which steers and directs the development and delivery of SPARCS pan hospice.
• Keep abreast of relevant national developments and guidance within SPARC, palliative and cancer care and to understand the implications of these for practice.
• Lead SPARCS education, development and support for the wider hospice team in partnership with L&D.
• Provide, where requested, external speaking or lecturing engagements.
• Provide mentorship or learning opportunities to medical and faith-based students, where appropriate.
• Provide/receive regular supervision to support CPD of self and others.
• The SPARCS Lead and other members of the team may undertake/participate in funded research projects in accordance with the Hospices research policies and procedures.