| MULTI-FAITH
GROUP FOR HEALTHCARE CHAPLAINCY
MINUTES
OF THE COUNCIL MEETING HELD AT CHURCH HOUSE, WESTMINSTER ON WEDNESDAY
12 MAY 2004
Present:
Hon Barney Leith - in the Chair
Ervad Bhedwar
Rev Robert Evans
Dr Raheem Khan
Revd Edward Lewis
Mr Sital Maan
Mr Ronald Maddox
Mr Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin
Rev Christine Pocock
Mr Paul Seto
Rabbi Martin van den Bergh
Mrs Barbara Walsh
Rt. Revd Thomas Williams
In
attendance:
Mr Tim Battle
Mr John James for minute 20/04
Gen Tubchen Kelsang as an observer
19/04
Apologies
Apologies
for absence were received from Ms Valerina Clarke, Mrs Joy Conway,
Mr Bimal Krsna das, Mrs Lesley Hilton, Mr Baldev Mawi, Mr Manhar Mehta,
HM Shafique Rahman, Rev Preb Peter Speck, Mr Kishor Ruparelia, and
Mr Dhirendra Sanghrajka,
20/04 Review of Department of Health central
allocation of funding for NHS chaplaincy (ref.
min 3/04)
Mr John
James indicated that his commitments had lessened with the completion
of other projects and that he intended to undertake the review of
the central allocation in the near future. He therefore asked Members
to contact him to arrange discussions and would himself initiate contacts
also. His contact details were via mobile phone 07831 861 390 or email
at john.james@doh.gsi.gov.uk
It was agreed that Tim Battle should send contact details from MFGHC
members to Mr James to facilitate these meetings.
21/04 MFGHC's application for support under
section 64 (ref min. 3/ 04)
The Council
was disappointed that the Department of Health had turned down this
application for support 2004-07. There had been felt to be tacit support
for the application and to be told now to seek help through the central
funding mechanism was similar to a catch 22.
22/04 Launch events for Caring for the Spirit
(ref min. 8/04)
Members
were thanked for the offers of help to cover the five presentations
with South Yorkshire WDC. Barney Leith reported on the first of these
in Billingham where a small number of attendees had expressed great
interest in the subject matter generally and support for the work
of the MFGHC.
23/04 Implementation Plan for Caring for the
Spirit (ref min. 9/04)
Tim Battle agreed to circulate the final version to Members who had
requested a copy. Barbara Walsh commented that, although this was
essentially a management document, it encapsulated a great deal of
the substantial progress which was being made in spiritual healthcare.
24/04 Quantifying the need for spiritual healthcare
(ref min. 10/04)
The Council
agreed the proposal to postpone consideration of this pieces of work
until the autumn when it could be considered with other priorities.
There was wide discussion about the issues of workload and resources
and their impact on this piece of work. The work itself was considered
a fundamentally important next step to that undertaken by the JNMFWP
which had identified chaplaincy in terms of staff numbers and bed
numbers. These parameters were sketchy and the disposition of services
across sites and within service categories had changed dramatically.
Strong support was therefore likely to be given to undertaking this
work in due course.
There was also concern that Trusts would not welcome documentation
which justified more investment in spiritual healthcare at a time
when they had other financial priorities. At the same time, it was
clear that the Government agenda of patient involvement; healthcare
standards; healthy lifestyles and choice of service provision should
provide opportunities for the MFGHC to make an impact with its advice.
It was suggested that Foundation Trust Governors should be approached
to indicate what attitude they had to promoting effective spiritual
care services.
It was clear that the work programme was worthwhile but that its output
needed to be delivered in a manner that took advantage of the current
wide ranging changes within the NHS. The Executive Committee would
consider how best to do this.
25/04 Marshalling resources for world faith
chaplaincies and multi-faith chaplaincy (ref
min. 14/04)
The trawl letter prepared by the Co-Chairs of the Education Committee
had been circulated widely within the community of chaplains. Christine
Pocock reported that there had been several responses and that some
interesting and helpful resources were becoming available. She proposed
that the sub-group to review the content of the material submitted
would seek to meet before the end of July.
Members agreed to submit items from their own community in due course.
It was also agreed that the remit of the Group should be regarded
as including England and Wales until otherwise indicated.
26/04 Awayday to prepare draft standards for
healthcare chaplaincy (ref min.
16/04)
Ron Maddox reported that 20 chaplains and members had met in March
for a day drafting standards for spiritual healthcare. These were
being prepared for discussion by the Committee in July prior to submission
to the Council and consultation with NHS bodies.
27/04 Election of Honorary Officers
The Council received a paper from the Chief Officer proposing a process
for the election of Honorary Officers
In discussion, the following points were made:
- Paragraph
1 - it was taken as read that the two members of the Council for
each faith community were there by right and no challenge should
normally be made to names which came forward.
- Paragraph
5 - it was agreed to amend the last sentence of this paragraph to
read "in the event of a second tie, the decision would be made
by casting lots."
- Paragraph
9 - it was agreed to amend the first sentence to read "nominations
should be drawn from amongst the existing Council and Committee
memberships…..". It was also agreed to delete the sentence
in squared brackets as the membership of Council by those co-opted
to Committees was not supported.
- Paragraph
10 - it was noted that the consecutive nature of elections was supported
even if this was more onerous.
Subject
to these amendments, the procedure was agreed. An amended copy would
be circulated with the minutes and added to the constitution.
28/04 Individual membership of MFGHC
The Council noted that there was increasing personal interest amongst
chaplains in the work being undertaken by the MFGHC and that, in response
to this commitment, recognition could be given by enabling an individual
membership of MFGHC.
There was strong support for this proposal which would enable the
current rapport with colleagues to become more vital and interactive.
At the same time, it was recognised that individual membership of
MFGHC should not overlap with membership of the College. There was
however a need to make the association between chaplains and MFGHC
more direct particularly as the constitution did not include any of
the trade union functions carried out by the College as part of Amicus.
In response to a question, Barney Leith made clear that MFGHC saw
itself a continuing for the longer term and not as a short-term "project".
The role of MFGHC was well defined and the workload was likely to
increase over time rather than the reverse. It was thus very likely
that as MFGHGC became better known and its work more readily accepted,
then there would be great pressure to enable a close personal association
by individuals.
Members were anxious that there should not be a confusion between
the work of the MFGHC and that of the College (Amicus/CHCC). This
was particularly the case whilst the College had asked for facilitation
in re-establishing its relationships with other chaplaincy and NHS
bodies and the meeting to consider this issue was due within a fortnight.
It was agreed that to launch a membership section during this period
might be seen as unsupportive of the College's approach.
There were some who were keen not to see this initiative in terms
of organisational analysis but rather to pursue what was right for
MFGHC and chaplaincy. All considered that the College would benefit
from membership of MFGHC and there was general agreement that patient
care would improve were the College's lack of engagement in spiritual
healthcare development to end.
After further discussion, it was agreed to review this initiative
in the light of the outcome of the meeting of all parties planned
for later in the month.
29/04 Chair's report - May 2004
Barney Leith reported on his visits to meetings of chaplains in Norwich
and in East Kent and on his presentation in Billingham. He had also
met with Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin to review progress in support of the
Muslim community which Mr Mueen-Uddin confirmed had been a useful
review.
30/04 Chief Officer's report - May 2004
Edward Lewis reported a hastening of requests for assistance and support
usually received via the website. He also asked Members to check their
contact details were up-to-date so that revisions and publications
could be made easily.
31/04 Report of the Education Committee - May
2004
Christine Pocock reported that the date had been set for the meeting
to develop the educational framework for spiritual healthcare education
(16th September in London). Details would be forthcoming in August.
32/04 Report of the Standards Committee - May
2004
Ron Maddox reported that the meeting of the Standards Committee was
being re-arranged in July to enable the draft standards to be considered
in more detail.
33/04 Identification for Members
It was agreed to see whether the Church House ID system could be adapted
to help members of MFGHC who needed proof of membership.
34/04 "Standards for Better Health"
- the Department of Health's consultation on Health Care Standards
for services under the NHS
The Council endorsed the submission made on their behalf in response
to this consultation exercise. This focused on the need for explicit
reference to spiritual healthcare.
35/04 Office support
There was discussion of the workload engendered by the Council's activities
and consideration of ways to lessen this. There was concern at the
refusal of grant aid by the Department of Health but determination
that this should not undermine the work which the Group had initiated.
Tim Battle explained that his own post had been reorganised and that
he had had to reduce his outside commitments to accommodate this change.
Members' offer to help wherever possible was gratefully received.
36/04 Dates of next meetings
The Council agreed to meet again on Wednesday 8th September 2004 and
Tuesday 18th January 2005
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