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Multi-Faith Group for Healthcare Chaplaincy

.....advancing multi-faith healthcare chaplaincy.

MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL MEETING HELD AT CHURCH HOUSE, WESTMINSTER ON WEDNESDAY 14th SEPTEMBER 2005

Present:

Rabbi Martin van den Bergh – in the Chair

Revd George Cobb
Mr Bimal Krsna das
Rev Robert Evans
Revd Debbie Hodge
Gen Tubchen Kelsang
Hon Barney Leith
Revd Edward Lewis
Mr Sital Maan
Revd Fr Paul Mason
Mr Manhar Mehta
Mr Baldev Mawi
Mr Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin
HM Shafique Rahman
Mr Kishor Ruparelia
Rt. Revd Thomas Williams

In attendance:
Mr Tim Battle
Revd Jim Linthicum

35/05 Welcome

The Chair welcomed Revd Jim Linthicum observing on behalf of the College of Health Care Chaplains and Revd Fr Paul Mason on behalf of the Roman Catholic faith community. HM Shafique Rahman was welcomed on his return after a lengthy absence.

The Chair reported the appointment of Mr Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin as Director for Muslim healthcare chaplaincy and of Mr Bimal Krsna das as Co-ordinator for Hindu healthcare chaplaincy. Both colleagues were congratulated on these appointments.

36/05 Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Mrs Joy Conway, Mrs Linda Coulter, Ervad Rustam Bhedwar, Mr Ronald Maddox, Mr Jayman Mehta, Rev Preb Peter Speck, Revd Chris Swift and Mr Alan Wittrick.

37/05 Minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 18 th May 2005 were agreed.

38/05 MFGHC grant application 2006-07
(ref. min 22/05)

The Chair reported that none of the grant applications for support of spiritual healthcare development had been successful other than that submitted by the Free Churches faith community in support of further work on the “fourth community” of Christian Churches, which had gone through to the next stage. Mr Krsna das reported that his community had been successful in an application not connected with healthcare chaplaincy.

39/05 SYSHA arrangements for administering the central allocation for chaplaincy (ref. min 23/05)

The Council noted SYSHA had allocated the balance of funds (£40K) from the central allocation for 2005-06 on an equitable basis in accordance with the arrangements proposed for the balance of funds in the James Report.

In commenting on these arrangements, Mr Thomson explained that the small sum involved had been allocated as swiftly as possible for enable faith communities to progress their plans. He was grateful to Barney Leith for advice about the approach being taken and would now seek to establish the service level agreements with colleagues as soon as practicable.

40/05 Communications strategy (ref. min 24/05)

Council received the notes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 22 nd June 2005. The broad approach to communications strategy set out therein was endorsed by Council.

Tim Battle reported on a useful meeting with the new Chief Nursing Officer who had agreed that a meeting with the Chair was essential and that she would make such arrangements. At the same time, the Chair indicated that he had been in contact with CNO's Office and with MPs in order to test their views. Edward Lewis indicated that the Bishop of St Albans was still seeking to meet with Ministers in the Lords.

41/05 Listening exercise on quality standards for spiritual healthcare (ref. min 26/05)

Council noted that the listening exercise had started on 1 st July 2005 and would end in September. A report of that exercise would be submitted to the Standards Committee and any changes proposed would then be tested with the NHS and associated bodies in a further listening exercise in 2006.

42/05 Launch of the resources for multi-faith chaplaincy (ref. min 28/05)

Council noted that these resources had been made available on the website with effect from 1 st September. The Chair congratulated those concerned who had marshalled these resources and the Education Committee which had sifted and highlighted them. Particular praise was reserved for Revd Fred Coutts as the mfghc.com webmaster for the clear and accessible presentation of material.

43/05 MFGHC Review Conference 2005

The Council received the report of the Conference held at St Thomas Hospital in June 2005. The report of the Conference was approved subject to the addition of Mr Sital Singh Maan's name to the list of those attending.

44/05 MFGHC Priorities 2006

The Council received a statement of managerial commitments compiled from those which had arisen from its routine work and those identified at the Review Conference.

In discussion, reference was made to the need to support commitments already made whilst not ignoring new issues. The Chair also suggested that improved co-ordination between different groups might assist progress. He suggested that the Lead Chaplains and those now funded to support faith community development should meet to discuss common issues and ways to maintain good communications.

In summary, the Council supported the priority work being undertaken in the following areas of work (the numbers in brackets refer to the work programme document):

•  Developing authorisation processes (1)

•  Advising on quality standards (5)

•  Getting more resources (13)

•  Developing Foundation training (14)

45/05 Authorisation processes

The Council received a paper setting out the revised timetable for meetings and the proposed questions for discussion thereat. In discussion, it was agreed that question 5 concerning ordination was not necessary. The Council agreed the remaining questions and noted that some faith communities might wish to undertake a written submission in place of a meeting.

46/05 Chair and Vice Chair's report – September 2005

The Chair and Vice Chair reported on events and issues since the last meeting including the Chair's talk at the CHCC Annual Conference.

47/05 Events in London on 7 th July

The Chair made special mention of the events in London on 7 th July and paid tribute to those who had responded to the need to care for victims at the time and in the days which followed. He made mention particularly of Debbie Hodge whose offices had been adjacent to one of the bombs and who had been very involved in the care of victims and others. He referred to the media statements in support of chaplains made by himself with Revd Chris Swift, President of the CHCC.

Despite the effective response, there were some aspects which caused concern. It was felt that the call-out arrangements for spiritual care-givers had not operated effectively and the lack of appropriate persons had enabled less appropriate groups to field representatives who had then been given access to victims and carers without checks. The Chair indicated that he would feed these comments into the system of review of the emergency response.

48/05 Chief Officer's report – September 2005

The Chief Officer reported positive feedback from NHS Trusts, many of which wanted to engage with the agenda for developing spiritual care, coupled with the difficulties of those who were having to reduce staffing as a result of the NHS financial position. Thus, the CNO in Wales was proposing to host a conference on spiritual care in 2006 at the same time that some hospitals were proposing to cease the arrangements for out of hours call out. The mix of positive and negative issues was challenging the rate of progress which had slowed during the summer months.

49/05 Jain Festival

Mr Manhar Mehta reported that during the Jain religious festival held in the first week of September and attended by more than 800 people, he had announced the setting up of a spiritual care system for Jain patients in hospital which was received by the audience with great enthusiasm.

50/05 Buddhist chaplaincy introductory course

Gen Tubchen Kelsang reported on the successful four-day introductory course in Manchester which had been attended by 18 people. This followed publicity at the Summer Festival held in Cumbria in July.

51/05 Dates of next meetings

The Council agreed to meet again on Wednesday 18th January, Wednesday 24th May, Tuesday 19th September 2006 and Wednesday 24th January 2007.

The meeting ended with prayers

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