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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Latest updates
Patients complained at surgery of doctor cleared over imposing religion
Posted: Thu, 19 Dec 2019 11:25
Multiple patients complained about religion being "pushed upon them" at a surgery where a doctor was recently told he would face no action for doing so, it has emerged.
Last month the General Medical Council (GMC) told Dr Richard Scott, a GP from Margate in Kent, he would not be penalised after the National Secular Society raised concerns about his conduct.
The GMC dismissed the case on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to take it further.
Now NSS research has uncovered minutes from a meeting of a patients' group at the Bethesda Medical Centre in January which reveal that patients have complained about religion being imposed on them.
During the meeting the centre's practice manager Rachael Cousins was asked whether religious representatives could visit patients.
In response, according to the minutes, "Rachael explained that unfortunately, too many complaints are received from patients saying that they do not with (sic) Christianity or any other religion to be pushed upon them when they attend the surgery."
The NSS is now urging the GMC to reconsider its decision not to investigate Dr Scott in light of the fresh evidence.
Case against Dr Scott
Earlier this year the NSS asked the GMC to explain how it planned to ensure Dr Scott met the standards required of a doctor, and to protect patients' right to access health care without evangelism.
The NSS raised the case after being contacted by a member of the public who was concerned about an acquaintance being treated at Bethesda. The NSS was told the acquaintance was "highly vulnerable" and was being made to feel uncomfortable because Dr Scott was imposing his religious views during appointments.
The NSS also raised remarks from a BBC Radio 4 interview which suggested Scott was ignoring GMC ethical guidelines.
Dr Scott appears to defy regulator's authority
In recent press reports Dr Scott has dismissed the recent case against him as "vexatious".
But recent public statements he has made since the GMC's latest decision suggest he is openly defying the authority of the regulator:
- He told BBC Radio Kent that he would continue to initiate conversations about his personal beliefs. This was despite guidance which says doctors "may talk about your own personal beliefs only if a patient asks you directly about them, or indicates they would welcome such a discussion".
- In the same interview he said he had not changed his "approach" since 2012, when the GMC gave him a warning after he distressed a patient through "insensitive" expression of his religious beliefs. His actions in 2012 were deemed a "significant departure" from the principles in the GMC's core guidance for all doctors.
- When asked whether he was prepared to practice in a way that risked his registration during the radio interview, he replied: "Absolutely."
- On the radio he also said: "As a Christian doctor you have to ask yourself, who's your ultimate boss? And it's not the GMC. It's Jesus Christ."
In press coverage of the case Dr Scott suggested the complainant simply "didn't like what [he] said on Radio 4". But the NSS received the complaint before Scott's Radio 4 appearance.
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans commented: "The evidence suggests that many patients do not welcome their GP's religion being imposed on them when they attend the surgery. This is why the GMC's ethical guidance prohibits it.
"Dr Scott appears either blind or indifferent to the way his actions may harm patients and undermine the doctor-patient relationship. Being an evangelical Christian does not exempt you from the behaviours and standards expected of all doctors working in the UK."
See also: Doctor don't preach, published in The Mirror (19 December 2019).
Image: Bethesda Medical Centre on Palm Bay Avenue, © Nick Smith [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Geograph.
NSS welcomes council in Somerset’s decision to scrap prayers
Posted: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 12:18
The National Secular Society has welcomed a decision to scrap official prayers at the start of meetings at a council in Somerset.
North Somerset Council voted to remove prayers from the start of council meetings on Tuesday and rejected calls to replace them with a multi-faith 'period of reflection'.
NSS campaigns officer Megan Manson said: "This is a very welcome move from North Somerset Council.
"Councillors have acknowledged that opening meetings with Christian prayers is not only unnecessary – it's alienating for many people in the region's diverse community.
"The council has also wisely decided to avoid a 'multifaith' approach to prayers, recognising the potential conflict this could cause.
"We hope more councils adopt the same policy to make council business inclusive to all, regardless of religion or belief."
The NSS campaigns to end official prayers at all government meetings at both a local and national level.
In 2012 the High Court ruled that prayers should not be said as part of formal council business after the NSS initiated a judicial review on the subject.
But in 2015 the government changed the law in England to make prayers, "other religious observance" or "observance connected with a religious or philosophical belief" lawful at local authority meetings.
In Somerset independent councillor Caritas Charles initially proposed the change, arguing that Christian prayers should be replaced with a period of reflection led by a "variety of spiritual and voluntary groups".
He said Christian prayers gave a message "that favours one particular group".
Councillors including Labour's Catherine Gibbons argued that meetings should be secular. But others including the council's deputy leader, Mike Bell, opposed change.
Recent NSS campaigning on council prayers
- In July the NSS wrote to councillors in Norfolk urging them to vote to scrap prayers at the start of meetings. The council voted to retain the prayers.
- The NSS has also lobbied councils in Wales to ensure any prayers are genuinely separate from meetings. The 2012 High Court judgment still applies in Wales.
- The NSS recently asked an equalities charity in Kent to reconsider its support for council prayers.
Image by reenablack from Pixabay.
