Multi-faith Group for Healthcare Chaplaincy Council September 2006

Council Minutes

MULTI-FAITH GROUP FOR HEALTHCARE CHAPLAINCY

MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL MEETING HELD AT No. 1 MILLBANK, WESTMINSTER ON TUESDAY 5th SEPTEMBER 2006

Present:

Rabbi Martin van den Bergh – in the Chair

Rev Robert Evans
Revd Debbie Hodge
Gen Tubchen Kelsang
Hon Barney Leith
Revd Edward Lewis
Mr Sital Maan
Mr Ronald Maddox
Mr Jayman Mehta
Mr Manhar Mehta
Revd Louise Morrison
Mr Keith Munnings
HM Shafique Rahman
Revd Fr Peter Scott
Revd Dr Chris Swift
Mr Derek Thomson
Rt Revd Tom Williams
Mr Alan Wittrick

In attendance:
Mr Tim Battle

18/06 Welcome

The Chair welcomed Mr Keith Munnings on behalf of the Buddhist community.

19/06 Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Mr Kobad Avari, Ervad Rustam Bhedwar, Revd George Cobb, Mrs Joy Conway, Mrs Linda Coulter, Mr Bimal Krsna das, Mr Simon Goulden, Mr Baldev Mawi, Mr Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, Rabbi Z M Salasnik and Rev Preb Peter Speck.

20/06 Minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 th May 2006

21/06 MFGHC allocation of the FCDF grant for 2006-07 (ref min 4/06)

The Council noted that the Executive Committee agreed at its July meeting that grants of £1500 should be made to the Jain and Sikh communities, and also to the Buddhist community subject to clarification of some detail.

The Sikh community intended to use these funds to support a day conference in Birmingham when the concept of Sikh chaplaincy would be explored and volunteers sought. The Jain community was intending to make presentations for community meetings with the same purpose.

22/06 NHS Yorkshire and the Humber arrangements for administering the central allocation for chaplaincy 2006-07 (ref min 5/06)

The Chair noted that the James Report issued in 2005 had proposed a new basis for the use of these funds including leadership posts for the Free Churches, Jewish and Muslim chaplaincies and the use of the remaining funds to support other faith communities and their chaplaincy development. He was aware on mounting concern that the allocation for 2006-07 had not been issued and hoped that some assurance for the future could now be given.

In response, Alan Wittrick emphasised that the allocation was for one year only and that the serious concern over NHS funding had lead DH officials to review all central allocations including that for hospital chaplaincy. He understood that no news was likely for another month or two and that the grant may also be reduced in size as a result of these considerations.

In further discussion, the difficulties experienced by faith communities having to fund the interim period were explained and great concern was voiced about the future of the allocation. Members were anxious that the Government's approach to this funding allocation should not become seen as a proxy for its concern about multi-faith work generally. The Council was very concerned that this small fund was essential to pump-prime other multi- and inter-faith initiatives.

23/06 MFGHC response to the Mirfield Report (ref min 8/06)

The Chairman reported that the Executive Committee had agreed at its July meeting that the Council should provide an event which would support the faith communities, the professional associations and the NHS in working “more closely together in sustaining and valuing healthcare chaplaincy and its care of the healthcare family.” The Executive Committee had considered that this work was important and that great care should be taken to ensure that a longer-term vision acceptable to all chaplaincy bodies could be achieved through this work.

Edward Lewis reported that, with advice from Bishop Christopher, he had approached the Baroness Finlay of Llandaff to see whether she would serve as the facilitator for this event. In addition to her work as a Consultant Physician within the NHS, the Baroness had also served with distinction on the Joffe Committee. She was willing in principle to engage with spiritual issues and the involvement of the faith communities in the NHS. Edward Lewis was seeking a meeting with the Baroness when more detail could be provided about the event itself.

The Council agreed to support the approaches made to date and the need for an event which brought all the chaplaincy bodies together in partnership. After further discussion, the Council asked Revd Debbie Hodge to lead the detailed planning of this event with Mr Manhar Mehta and Revd George Cobb.

24/06 Election of Honorary Officers 2007-08 (ref min 9/06)

Council noted the instigation of the election of honorary officers for 2007-08 with the publication of the nomination form for Chair of Council.

25/06 NHS financial strategy and its impact on chaplaincy

The Council received a paper prepared by the Chairman which indicated that, as part of the NHS' effort to achieve financial balance in 2006-07, NHS Trusts were being supported in making strenuous efforts to achieve this target. One Trust (the acute Trust in Worcester) had indicated its intention to make its chaplaincy team redundant as part of its financial plan. Considerable effort was going toward persuading this Trust to moderate its approach to chaplaincy and retain its chaplaincy team and the Council needed to agree an approach based on concern about the individual Trust action whilst also considering how best to represent these concerns to Ministers in due course should other NHS Bodies follow this approach also.

Edward Lewis updated members about the events in Worcester and his involvement in efforts to bring the Trust and the Churches together for a discussion. He also referred to the meeting between Lord Warner and the Archbishop of Canterbury at which he had been present when the need to maintain the current approach to healthcare chaplaincy had been pressed. Chris Swift referred to the efforts being made by CHCC/ Amicus and the issues associated with small and dispersed departments where on-call required up to five chaplains.

Members raise a number of concerns about the situation within the NHS. These included the lack of clarity as to the DH position; the need to ensure that other Trusts did not follow the Worcester example; the feeling of instability which this eventuality had engendered amongst chaplains; and the loss of impetus to chaplaincy development now occurring. The Chairman indicated that that he had discussed this issues with Governments contacts and there was support but, as yet, no action.

After further discussion, the Council agreed as follows:

• The Chairman should write to the Chairman of the Worcester Trust to register concerns about the situation there.

• The Council should seek a meeting with Ministers to discuss the policy and standards for chaplaincy-spiritual care in health and social care.

The Executive Committee should be asked to consider how best to handle these situations in future

26/06 Chairman's Report – September 2006

In reporting on his appointment as Rabbi within the Hong Kong community, the Chairman restated his support for the MFGHC work agenda which had emerged from the June 2005 Conference and welcomed the support for the resources launched in January 2006. He hoped that the Group would continue to flourish and thanked those with whom he had worked for their help and support.

Edward Lewis, Sital Singh Maan and Barney Leith paid tribute to the Chairman's work both within his chaplaincy and in chairing the Group.

27/06 Handling issues of commonality arising from a particular faith community

In response to questions, the Council agreed that it would not normally intervene in issues which could be assigned readily to one of the world faith communities unless invited to do so.

28/06 Celebrating healthcare chaplaincy through local annual events in October

Council noted the good level of support which this proposal had engendered and agreed to discuss it further in 2007.

29/05 Dates of next meetings

The Council agreed to meet again on Wednesday 24th January 2007

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