The Bulletin is published every four months inform colleagues about the work being undertaken by the Council and its Committees.

• Welcome
• Launch event for new DoH Guidance and "Caring for the Spirit"
• New DoH Policy Guidance
• Caring for the Spirit
• IT Project
• Review of DoH Central Allocation for Chaplaincy
• Liz Paffey retires
• Membership by College of Health Care Chaplains
• Foundation Degree in Healthcare Chaplaincy
• Study Day for World Faith Chaplains
• Communicating the world of MFGHC
• Content of the next Bulletin
• Register to receive the BULLETIN

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BULLETIN 3
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BULLETIN 3- November 2003

Chairman:
The Hon. Barnabas Leith
Secretary National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the UK
Barney.Leith@mfghc.com

Chief Officer:
The Rev'd Edward J Lewis
HCC Church House
Great Smith Street
London SW1P 3NZ
Tel 020 7898 1894
Chief.Officer@mfghc.com

Welcome

Welcome to the Bulletin of the Multi-Faith Group for Healthcare Chaplaincy (MFGHC). This Bulletin is distributed every four months to inform colleagues about the work being undertaken by the Council and its Committees.

Launch event for new policy guidance and new workforce strategy held at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London on Wednesday 5th November 2003

Barney Leith, Chair of the Multi-Faith Group for Healthcare Chaplaincy led the launch event for the new policy and new strategy at Bart's on 5th November. Barney Leith's speech, some photos and commentary about the launch are included on the MFGHC website at www.mfghc.com

NHS Chaplaincy: Meeting the religious and spiritual needs of patients and staff

The long-awaited new guidance on healthcare chaplaincy was launched by Sarah Mullally, Chief Nurse, Department of Health at the event on 5th November. The guidance is prepared from the submission made by the Joint National Multi-Faith Working Party which is a predecessor of the Multi-Faith Group. Changes were suggested and endorsed during this summer's listening exercise.

Caring for the Spirit: A strategy for the chaplaincy and spiritual healthcare workforce

The workforce strategy prepared by South Yorkshire Workforce Development Confederation on behalf of NHS bodies was launched by Barbara Walsh at the event on 5th November.

This is the first workforce development strategy for healthcare chaplaincy and proposes arrangements for career development, education and training and the modernising of chaplaincy practice and processes.

The workforce strategy sets out a vision for chaplaincy to be achieved by 2010. The implementation programme is included in the strategy document and sets clear milestones for progress towards effective and patient-centred healthcare chaplaincy. The strategy acknowledges the need to support patients of all faiths and those who have no faith.

IT project in support of chaplaincy DPA/ consent issues

As part of her talk at the launch event on 5th November, Sarah Mullally indicated that approval had now been given to the IT project in support of chaplaincy DPA/ consent issues.

The project is aimed at establishing an information framework to help in the development of local information systems to record a person's consent to their details being passed to the chaplaincy team. The project is expected to last for six months and to report its findings during 2004.

Review of the DoH central allocation for NHS chaplaincy

Edward Lewis, MFGHC Chief Officer reported that, following discussions with DoH Officials, the Department had now asked Mr John James to carry out this work. It was hoped that he would be able to meet with the Council in February.

In discussion, there was concern that further barriers were being placed in the way of achieving a level playing field for chaplaincy support funding. Whilst welcoming the involvement of an independent reviewer, the Council restated its view that, in addition to funds needed for local services, funding was also needed to develop a national infrastructure to support these local services.

Retirement of Liz Paffey

The Council held a farewell lunch for Liz Paffey which was hosted by Mr Sital Singh Maan to whom the Council was grateful. Paul Seto had paid tribute to Liz Paffey's 15 years service to chaplains and chaplaincy including support more recently to the development of multi-faith work.

Membership of MFGHC by the College of Health Care Chaplains

At the Council meeting in November, the Chair reported further correspondence from the Acting President of the College of Health Care Chaplains in reply to the Council's invitation for the College to join. Revd Robert Mitchell had proposed that the constitution of the Group should be changed before the College could consider how best to work with it. As this approach was not supported, the Chair was asked to meet with Robert Mitchell to discuss this further.

Foundation Degree in Healthcare Chaplaincy

The Council has received a presentation from Fr Michael Hayes, Head of Faculty, St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill, on his development of proposals for a foundation degree in healthcare chaplaincy.

In discussion the following points were clarified:

• There would need to be an overview of all faiths in addition to the detail about individual faiths.
• The course would be aimed at all those who wished to work as healthcare chaplains and would be delivered by teachers who were appropriately trained and appropriately qualified.
• In ranking for academic status, the foundation degree would sit between the certificate and the honours degree.
• Effort would need to be made to maximise opportunity for common learning with other healthcare students.
• Consideration would be given to how the philosophical aspects of sickness and health were examined and to whether there might be a separate module for this topic.
• There would need to be emphasis on the key skills of chaplains and on the practice of chaplaincy.
• The practicality of various locations should be considered.
• The costs would be £1050 per student per annum and HEFCE funding would be available for the remaining expenses

After further discussion, the Council welcomed this initiative and asked the Education Committee to take it forward on their behalf and to develop criteria for judging such programmes.

Study Day for World Faith Chaplains - 17th March 2004 - Derby Royal Infirmary

Arrangements are being made for a study day for those working in or interested in supporting healthcare chaplaincy in the Bahai, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Zoroastrian faiths. The Study Day is planned for 17th March 2004 at Derby Royal Infirmary and there will be no charge. Application forms are available from training@mfghc.com

The MFGHC has established a website (www.mfghc.com) where its work will be highlighted. It intends to publish an e-bulletin about its progress every four months. For routine communication, Edward Lewis can be contacted as follows:

Revd Edward Lewis
Chief Officer, MFGHC
Room 366, Church House,
Westminster
London SW1P 3NZ

Tel: 020 7898 1892

E-mail: chief.officer@mfghc.com

Content of the next Bulletin

The next Bulletin will be published after the Council's meeting in February 2004.

EJL 19th November 2003

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