We run the Non-Religious Pastoral Support Network, which trains and accredits non-religious pastoral carers to provide that support, and now have staff or volunteers operating across a range of institutional settings throughout England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Significant change due to our campaign over the last ten years has led to around 35% of NHS Trusts and almost 10% of prisons now having non-religious pastoral carers in their team, most of them volunteers, but including more than 20 paid posts, two heads of NHS services, and two Managing Chaplains in prisons. The Ministry of Defence has announced its intention to also employ non-religious pastoral support officers.
While this represents huge progress, there is still a long way to go to achieve equal access for service users. In 2023 we helped to create the NHS Chaplaincy – Guidelines for NHS managers on pastoral, spiritual and religious care for England and are currently working with NHS Wales on a similar review of their guidelines. We are working closely with His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) to introduce fully inclusive pastoral care in prisons in England and Wales and to update the national guidance for prison pastoral care, titled Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners, which has not been substantively reviewed since it was published in 2016. We are also engaging with the Department of Justice and Department of Health in Northern Ireland to realise parity of care there.
In depth
The demand for chaplaincy services from religious people is already to a large extent met, especially with the growth of multifaith chaplaincy teams in recent years. However, most such teams lack non-religious practitioners even though academic research and polls show a clear demand.
This is because the demand has been largely latent until recent years: the service did not exist, in many places still doesn’t, and potential users do not realise that it could and should exist.
We have been monitoring advertised vacancies for NHS chaplains since 2016, in partnership with the Network for Pastoral, Spiritual, and Religious Care in Health, to record and challenge where posts have been restricted to religious applicants only, possibly unlawfully. Through this intervention, and our work with NHS England to improve guidance, the number of vacancies open to qualified practitioners of any faith or belief has risen from 16% in 2016 to 61% in 2024. Questions still remain regarding how inclusive and equitable recruitment processes and appointments are, however this is considerable progress.
When referring to non-religious pastoral support, we do not generally use the word ‘chaplaincy’, which retains sufficient religious connotations to be inappropriate as a meaningful description – research we have undertaken demonstrates that the term acts as a barrier for the non-religious in accessing services.
In 2014, HMPPS (then known as National Offender Management Service) recognised that humanists in prison have the legal right to a humanist pastoral support visitor, and since then five non-religious pastoral carers have been appointed to paid roles in prisons, including two Managing Chaplains. In 2015 the NHS similarly obliged NHS bodies in England to provide pastoral support to non-religious people. In 2018, Lindsay de Wal became the first humanist to head an NHS Trust’s chaplaincy and pastoral support and since then there have been two further non-religious practitioners appointed as heads of NHS chaplaincy teams. In 2023, the UK Government announced its intention to replace HMPPS’s Chaplaincy Council with a Chaplaincy Faith and Belief Forum and that this will include non-religious pastoral carers, and we are currently represented on the interim structure while the full review is undertaken.
UK Prison Population Statistics in 2025 show that 30% of prisoners in England and Wales, some 26,000, have no religion. Just as religious prisoners will have religious or spiritual needs related to their beliefs that require a denominationally specific approach, non-religious prisoners will have spiritual and pastoral needs that should be approached equally. Data comparing the patterns of employment in 2020 for prison chaplaincy services with the demographics of the prison population showed that during the preceding two years there had been no job adverts specifically for the non-religious, compared to 34% for Anglican, 14 % Catholic, 11% Muslim, and 6% Sikh. Only 4% of positions advertised permitted a non-religious person to apply, compared to 55% of positions open to Anglicans, 36% to Catholics, 31% to Muslims, and 15% to Sikhs.
Meanwhile, April 2025 UK Armed Forces demographics show 41% of regular forces and 32% of reserves declaring they have no religion. This has risen rapidly in recent years, from 15% and 18%, respectively, in 2012. Indeed it is understood to be the case that among new recruits, most now say they have no religion (reflecting trends in wider society, in which around 70% of young people now identify as non-religious).
What we’re doing
We work with the NHS in both England and Wales, are members of the Network for Pastoral, Spiritual, and Religious Care in Health. Clare Elcombe Webber, our Director of Community Services, was elected as its Chair in 2024, and supports the group to challenge discriminatory adverts for jobs within chaplaincy teams where restricting the post to candidates from a particular religion or belief is not justified by a genuine occupational requirement. We also work with HMPPS and the Ministry of Defence to encourage inclusion of non-religious pastoral support, and our Director of Humanist Care works directly with bodies such as NHS Employers, the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplains and the College of Healthcare Chaplains to support their work on diversity, inclusion, and professionalisation. In Northern Ireland we have volunteers in both prisons and hospitals providing non-religious pastoral care, but there are no non-religious staff. We are engaged with both the Department of Justice and Department of Health to work towards the establishment of fully inclusive provision.
In 2017 we supported the creation of the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling’s postgraduate programme in Pastoral Care: Existential and Humanist Practice and our practitioners are guest lecturers and tutors for students. This is the only non-religious professional chaplaincy and pastoral care qualification in the UK.
In 2018, Lindsay de Wal became the first humanist appointed as the head of a chaplaincy and pastoral support team at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. This followed on from NHS Leicester Hospitals having hired Jane Flint as the first paid non-religious pastoral carer in early 2016, with the role being charitably funded. Both Jane and Lindsay’s appointments were covered in The Guardian, and since their appointments two further heads of service and more than a dozen other practitioners have been appointed to paid roles in healthcare. This progress is closely linked to our strategic work with NHS England in the creation of its 2023 Chaplaincy Guidelines, and our engagement with NHS Wales and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland to support similar policy developments.
We work closely with HMPPS to promote equal pastoral care provision in prisons in England and Wales, and our Director of Humanist Care serves as the non-religious advisor to HMPPS. They are working together to update the national guidance for prison pastoral care. In Northern Ireland, chaplaincy and pastoral care in prisons is not provided directly, but in effect commissioned from external providers, and we are engaging with the Department of Justice to make sure this is inclusive. In 2019, Maghaberry Prison in Northern Ireland admitted humanist pastoral carers as volunteers for the first time. This was covered in The Guardian twice and the Belfast Telegraph twice, and we are working towards establishing paid pastoral carers in Northern Irish prisons.
In 2020 and 2023 non-religious pastoral carers were appointed as Managing Chaplains in two prisons in England, and further practitioners have been appointed as bank chaplains.
In 2023, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced its intention to employ non-religious pastoral support officers, and recognised Humanists UK as the endorsing authority through its Non-Religious Pastoral Support Network (NRPSN). Humanists UK and its section Defence Humanists have been working with the MoD and its internal network Humanists and Non-religious in Defence (HAND) on this outcome for many years. In 2025, Neil Weddell was appointed the armed forces’ first ever non-religious pastoral carer.
In 2023, the University of Sussex became the first University to appoint a humanist – James Croft – to lead its chaplaincy team. This was covered in The Times.
We support our Scottish colleagues through Humanist Society Scotland by training and accreditation non-religious practitioners in Scotland, and by providing advice and support to HSS in strategic work in this sector.
Appendix: Past work on this issue
- Before the more recent appointments, a number of pilot projects were run, such as that overseen by Probation Officer Amy Walden in HMP Winchester. After the successful completion of these programmes, we recruited a volunteer Head of Pastoral Support and began training and accrediting pastoral support volunteers. In 2016 the role (now the Director of Humanist Care) became a full-time paid one, supported by Humanists UK’s Director of Community Services.
- In 2014, the HMPPS 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.