‘Pioneers of a new and necessary service’ commended by parliamentarians in APPHG meeting held on non-religious pastoral support

Ruth Staton, Amy Walden, David Savage, Mike Kavanagh, Lord Warner, and Mark Burleigh.

On Tuesday the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group (APPHG) hosted the first ever meeting in Parliament on non-religious pastoral support. The meeting heard from humanist pastoral support volunteers in hospital, prison and armed forces settings, as well as Mike Kavanagh, the Head of Chaplaincy of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), and Mark Burleigh, the Head of Chaplaincy at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. The British Humanist Association (BHA), which provides the secretariat to the APPHG, has increasingly focused its work on pastoral support over the last few years, hiring its first Head of Pastoral Support earlier this year.

Non-religious pastoral support is a new and rapidly growing field within the UK. In 2014, the National Offender Management Service recognised that humanists in prison have the legal right to a humanist pastoral support visitor, and in 2015 the NHS similarly obliged NHS bodies in England to provide pastoral support to non-religious people. The BHA now has over 100 accredited pastoral support volunteers, with hundreds more due to be trained through the new Non-Religious Pastoral Support Network (NRPSN), and there are now three employed humanist pastoral carers in a variety of settings.

The standing-room only meeting was chaired by APPHG Vice Chair Lord Warner of Brockley, and also featured the AGM of the group. The meeting heard first from Dr David Savage, incoming chair of the NRPSN and an ‘honorary contract chaplain’ at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. David explained the value of pastoral support in helping people have space to reflect. He cited evidence showing that only 4% of visits in his hospital by religious chaplains were to the 40% of patients who are not religious, showing their needs are not being met.

Next spoke Amy Walden, Probation Officer at Winchester Prison who manages its humanist pastoral support programme, which was the first non-religious pastoral support programme across the UK. She emphasised the need to treat prisoners with humanity if they are expected to be respectful and law-abiding citizens. She explained how previously there had been a difference in support for religious and non-religious prisoners, with the latter getting less time out of their cells. Research conducted showed demand for non-religious pastoral support, which helps prisoners with issues such as bereavement, making sense of the world, and finding a sense of belonging.

Flt Lt Ruth Staton, a Royal Air Force nurse based at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Oxford, spoke about how she is in discussions with chaplaincy about piloting non-religious pastoral support in the armed forces. She emphasised that the Christian chaplaincy in the armed forces has provided excellent support in her experience, but that non-religious civilian advisors supporting the service are limited. A chaplaincy and pastoral support service with less affiliation to a specific religion could better meet the need of an armed forces which is becoming increasingly diverse.

Rev Mike Kavanagh of NOMS explained how going to prison can be traumatic, and chaplaincy seeks to ease this pain. Prison chaplaincy started as an Anglican endeavour but this has changed with demographics, and now NOMS’s chaplaincy support includes Humanism. Prisoners with non-religious worldviews now have clearer opportunities to engage with the pastoral support process, and meet people who can help them be the best they can be.

Finally, Rev Mark Burleigh of Leicester Hospitals described hiring the first paid non-religious pastoral carer in the UK. He identified that the diversity of religions in his chaplaincy team was not enough as it did not meet the needs of the non-religious. When he consulted non-religious patients 85% said having a paid humanist pastoral carer was a good idea, and 80% of those said they would use the service. Mark said that he is committed not to ‘generic’ but diverse chaplaincy because it is much higher quality in actually meeting need. He was pleased to report that the recruitment was proving a successful one.

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For further comment or information, please contact BHA Campaigns Manager Richy Thompson at richy@humanists.uk or on 020 7324 3072.