Revd Dr Mark Newitt, Secretary for Health and Social Care Chaplaincy
The FCG Healthcare Chaplaincy Steering Committee
The Committee met on the 17th June. These summary points are shared for your information:
We welcomed Suzanne Nockels to her first meeting as a member of the committee. We also welcomed Karen Murphy who was shadowing Janelle as part of exploring whether she would like to become our second rep on the Network For Pastoral, Spiritual and Religious Care in Health.
We had a good discussion around the question of what one thing would we like to research about our chaplaincy practice and why. Answers given ranged from the effectiveness of chaplaincy at different times of day, spiritual pain and patients ability to receive care, and chaplaincy involvement in debriefing staff after incidents. What was common to all was a recognition of a need to evidence benefit, but a desire not to be limited by a view that only numbers counted.
We recognised the difficult situations many chaplaincy departments are in with funding cuts and holds on recruitment. While this is common to much of the NHS, we would be concerned about chaplaincy being particularly targeted.
The steering group congratulated Mark on a successful study day. Feedback has been excellent showing that chaplains had found the mix of the day, and the emphasis on story alongside data, helpful. [As an addendum, to this and the previous point: we discussed the situation of a stop on recruitment faced by one member of the steering committee. We’ve since heard that recruitment to the vacant post has been permitted and that it was the telling of stories that was key to the decision change.]
Janelle reported on attending the Chaplaincy Course: Presence and Healing run by Go Health. She had found the course both informative and well delivered. The steering committee felt it worth exploring links with Go Health going forward (for example, seeing if we could negotiate reduced rates for a number of FCG chaplains to attend each running of the course).