Services funded by public money should be open to all, without alienating anyone.
The recent drive to contract out public services to faith groups risks undermining equal access.
Help us keep public services free from discrimination and evangelism.
The government is increasingly pushing for more publicly-funded services to be provided by religious organisations.
Many faith-based groups have carried out social service without imposing their beliefs. But religious groups taking over public service provision raises concerns regarding proselytising and discrimination.
65% of people have no confidence in church groups running crucial social provisions such as healthcare with only 2% of people expressing a lot of confidence.
Any organisations involved in delivering public services should be bound by equality law and restrictions on proselytisation.
Those advocating for faith organisations to take over more public services risk undermining these restrictions, which exist to protect both the public and third sector.
"We have concerns that some religious groups that seek to take over public services, particularly at local level, could pursue policies and practices that result in increased discrimination against marginalised groups, particularly in service provision and the employment of staff. Non-religious people and those not seen to confirm to the dominant ethos of a religious body, such as being in an unmarried relationship or divorced and being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, could find themselves subject to discrimination."
Unitarian Church (Submission to the Parliamentary Public Administration Select Committee about the Big Society agenda)
There are also concerns about faith-based mental health and pastoral care in public institutions, including chaplaincy programmes in the NHS and the armed forces. Where such services are funded by the state, they should not be organised around religion or belief.
Religious commentators are often keen to document the contribution of religious organisations to the third sector and social activism. But they fail to demonstrate why it should be the state's role to build this capacity or why local authorities shouldn't have legitimate concerns about religious groups running services.
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1. Write to your MP
Ask your MP to protect secular public services.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join the National Secular Society
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
Coroner faces legal threat over refusal to prioritise religious burials
Posted: Fri, 5 Jan 2018 09:45
The National Secular Society has expressed support for a north London coroner facing a furious backlash for refusing to prioritise religious burials over others.
Mary Hassell, senior coroner at St Pancras coroner's office, decided in October 2017 to withdraw a special arrangement for the Jewish community. Under the arrangement agreed in January 2015, Jews who die at home in north London would be immediately sent to the Carmel Funeral Home in Stamford Hill, instead of going to a public mortuary as is standard.
The rule was originally adopted to accommodate Jewish beliefs that a body should be buried as soon as possible after death, and that it should be 'guarded' until burial by members of the Jewish community.
The decision to cancel the arrangement follows a dispute with Stamford Hill's Adath Yisroel Synagogue and Burial Society (AYBS) over the burial of Aharon Barzevski, who had died of natural causes on October 21st.
According to Ms Hassell, the society had made one of her officers feel "bullied" and "persecuted" and had caused delays to other important work by making repeated phone calls and e-mails demanding a post mortem be carried out the next working day. Staff shortages meant that that it was not possible to fulfil this request, and the body was released for burial on October 25th.
The Jewish Chronicle reported last month that in a separate incident one woman made 210 phone calls to the St. Pancras Coroner's Office before being assured that her father would be buried four days after his death.
In letters to representatives of the Jewish community in Hackney, the coroner stated that "no death will be prioritised in any way over any other because of the religion of the deceased or family, either by coroner's officers or coroners".
She said that the bodies of Jews "will now go to the mortuary as everyone else does while awaiting a decision by the sitting coroner, and will remain in that mortuary after any scan or invasive autopsy, until the coroner makes the decision to release to the family."
Ms Hassell has also said that she was "acutely conscious" of Jewish and Muslim teachings and added: "I always take these into account in my decisions [but] there is a difference between being sensitive to faith and prioritising one person over another because of their religion."
The coroner said her decision was also prompted by AYBS's refusal to comply with the order to transfer Mr Barzevski's body to the mortuary at Whittington Hospital.
In response, AYBS threatened to lodge a judicial review against Ms Hassell, claiming her policy is "unlawful".
Rabbi Asher Gratt, who volunteers for AYBS, said: "It beggars belief that we should be going through these sort of issues in a democratic society.
"We have had such a good relationship with every single coroner other than her. We could pick up the phone and call them in the middle of the night, and they would go out of their way to help."
Following a meeting on Friday with Ms Hassell, at which the coroner refused to change her stance, the the Board of Deputies of British Jews has said it plans to turn to the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary David Gauke, and the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, to request Hassell's removal from her position.
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, told the Jewish Chronicle that he welcomed the Board's decision to write to the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary.
The National Secular Society has written to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office in support of Ms Hassell, and the principle of giving equal, non-preferential treatment to all burials regardless of religious considerations. In the letter, the NSS asked the JCIO to keep in mind that coroners should be entitled to carry out their work free from harassment or intimidation.
"Burials are highly sensitive issues. But in demanding special privileges for their community, Adath Ysroel Synagogue and Burial Society are arguing for people to be sent to the back of the queue if they do not share their religious beliefs," said Megan Manson, campaigns officer at NSS.
"Religion should not entitle someone to a 'premium' service, particularly at a time when public services are already under pressure. We applaud Ms Hassell in her decision to stand up for equal treatment for all people in her jurisdiction."
Story updated 23/01/2018
Faith groups ‘shouldn’t proselytise when providing public services’
Posted: Thu, 7 Dec 2017 15:36
The National Secular Society has urged the Government not to allow proselytising in public service delivery after a minister said Christian charities need not hide their faith while providing public services.
On 21 November the minister for civil society, Tracey Crouch MP, said anyone in Government who discourages open expressions of faith must be challenged. She was delivering a keynote speech at an event entitled 'Raising Funds for Christian Charities and Churches'.
"Some of you here feel that successive governments and local authorities have wanted to applaud all the good things that you do as Christians, but discourage you from speaking openly about the faith that motivates you," she said. "I assure you that that is not the intention, and I encourage you to challenge anyone in government who makes you feel you need to suppress your faith."
Stephen Evans, NSS chief executive, said her words could be interpreted as condoning, or even encouraging, proselytising by faith groups contracted to provide public services.
In a letter to the minister, the NSS warned that proselytising can put vulnerable people in particular at risk of exploitation and called for all contracts with religious providers of publicly-funded services to have unambiguous non-proselytising clauses.
"It goes without saying that social action by faith-based organisations has contributed to the welfare of our society," said Mr Evans.
"However, any attempt to give faith-based organisations more room to discuss religion when running public services risks making their services less inclusive. As the Government looks to faith groups to 'fill in the gaps' in public service provision, the risk of discrimination against employees and service users increases, as does the risk of faith groups using public money to proselytise.
"While we acknowledge that faith groups shouldn't be excluded from contracts and grants simply because they have a religious ethos, it is imperative that such groups deliver their services in an entirely secular manner in order to ensure the service is open to all members of the public without direct or indirect discrimination."
Image: Tracey Crouch delivers her speech to the event 'Raising Funds for Christian Charities and Churches'.
