80 years of the NHS Act: Nye Bevan’s humanist legacy

On 6 November 1946, the National Health Service Act became law. Eighty years on, the idea at its heart is still a radical one: when you are ill, you should get the care you need – whoever you are, whatever you earn, and whatever you believe.

The man who made that idea a reality was Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, a lifelong humanist. It was Nye Bevan’s deep affinity for his fellow humans that drove his politics, and it was what led him to create one of Britain’s best-loved institutions. As we mark the anniversary, we look back at his legacy, at why the NHS is one of the great humanist inventions, and at how humanists are helping to shape care for patients in the NHS today.

Who founded the NHS?

The NHS was built by many hands, but its architect was Nye Bevan, Minister of Health in Clement Attlee’s post-war Labour Government.

Bevan was born in 1897 in Tredegar, a mining town in South Wales. He left school at 13 to work down the pit, became a union leader, and was elected MP for Ebbw Vale in 1929. Tredegar shaped his thinking on health. Its Workmen’s Medical Aid Society pooled small weekly contributions from local workers to pay for doctors and treatment for everyone in the town. Bevan’s ambition was to do the same for the whole country.

After Labour’s landslide win in 1945, he got his chance. He drew together a patchwork of local hospitals, charities, and fee-paying services into one comprehensive health service, paid for collectively and free for patients when they need it.

When was the National Health Service founded?

The National Health Service Act received royal assent on 6 November 1946, creating the NHS in England and Wales. Separate laws brought the same principles to Scotland and Northern Ireland. The service opened its doors on 5 July 1948, when Bevan visited Park Hospital in Davyhulme, near Manchester, on its very first day.

Nye Bevan, humanist

When Bevan died in 1960, his wife, the Labour politician Jennie Lee, summed him up like this:

Bevan was an atheist and a humanist all his life. His convictions rested on our shared humanity, not on any god, and on the belief that people working together could make life fairer and better for everyone. He put it plainly himself: ‘No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.’

His humanism is remembered in his home country too. The statue of Bevan on Queen Street in Cardiff is the work of humanist sculptor Robert Thomas. You can read more about Bevan’s life and beliefs and Robert Thomas’ statue on Humanist Heritage, and find out about the work of Wales Humanists today.

Why the NHS is a humanist institution

While the NHS was built and is staffed by people of all faiths and beliefs, its founding principles are deeply humanist.

• It is built on our shared humanity. The NHS cares for people according to their need, not their wealth, background, or beliefs.
• It trusts evidence. Modern medicine is one of the greatest achievements of the scientific method, and the NHS puts it in reach of everyone.
• It acts on empathy. It asks all of us to take responsibility for one another, so that no one faces illness alone.
• It values this one life we have. Humanists believe this is the one life we have. The NHS exists to help people live that life as long, as healthily, and as well as they can.

It is a beautiful example of our country coming together to act for everyone, and of how being altruistic helps our society, and humanity as a whole.

Humanist pastoral care in the NHS today

The NHS cares for the whole person, not just the body. That includes pastoral care: someone to listen and offer support through a difficult diagnosis, a long stay in hospital, a bereavement, or the end of life.

Non-religious patients and their families can face the same fears, hopes, anguish, questions of meaning and purpose, sense of loss and bereavement as religious patients. These are a fundamental part of our common humanity.

For most of the history of the NHS, pastoral care in hospitals was predominantly a service provided for religious patients and their families, by religious chaplains. But thanks to the work of Humanists UK, that has changed. In 2016, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust appointed Jane Flint as the first paid non-religious pastoral carer in the NHS. In 2018, humanist Lindsay de Wal (then Lindsay van Dijk) became the first humanist to lead an NHS chaplaincy and pastoral care team. And in 2023, NHS England guidelines required equal access to religious and non-religious pastoral care for the first time.

Today, through Humanists UK’s support of the Non-Religious Pastoral Support Network, accredited non-religious pastoral carers work in more than a third of NHS trusts across England and Wales, as well as in prisons, universities, and the Armed Forces.

This is one of the most important things we do. When people are at their most vulnerable, they deserve support from someone who understands their outlook on life. For the growing number of people who are not religious, that means a like-minded listening ear – someone who won’t offer prayers, but will offer time, care, and real human connection.

We think Bevan would recognise that. Care given freely, to anyone who needs it, grounded in our common humanity, is exactly what he fought for.

Find out more

• Read about our humanist pastoral support, including how to train as a non-religious pastoral carer.
• Explore a history of humanist care on Humanist Heritage.
• Read how we celebrated ten years of non-religious pastoral support in the NHS.