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
Council ends church officials’ education committee voting rights
Posted: Thu, 25 Apr 2019 13:25
The National Secular Society has welcomed a decision from a council in eastern Scotland to withdraw voting rights from unelected church representatives who sit on its education committees.
Perth and Kinross Council became the first of Scotland's 32 local authorities to take the step after passing a motion which will allow only elected committee members to vote.
The NSS is now writing to Scotland's other local education authorities urging them to follow Perth and Kinross's lead.
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 requires local authorities to appoint three unelected religious representatives to their education committees, at least one of whom must be Catholic and one Protestant.
According to a petition by the Edinburgh Secular Society, the Church of Scotland held the balance of power on 60% of local authority committees in 2013.
The motion in Perth and Kinross, which will come into effect from next Wednesday, was brought by independent council member Xander McDade.
He raised the issue amid public concern over church representatives' role in a recent decision to close a primary school.
Last month the council's lifelong learning committee voted to close Blairingone Primary School by eight votes to seven, with two religious representatives casting the decisive votes.
Before this week's vote McDade said: "I haven't spoken to a single person who hasn't been appalled by the fact that the decision to close this small rural school was swung by the votes of unelected religious representatives."
The NSS has long supported campaigns to remove unelected religious representatives from local authority education committees.
Last year, in a letter to the cabinet secretary for education John Swinney, the NSS urged the Scottish government to remove these positions. In response Swinney said the government did not plan to do so.
But the Scottish government recently said councils were not legally obliged to give those representatives voting rights.
NSS education and schools officer Alastair Lichten welcomed Perth and Kinross Council's decision.
"People of all faiths and none should and do have the right to seek election to Scotland's councils and through this secular democratic process take part in education committees. Religious representatives should be given no special privileged treatment.
"Unelected church representatives should not have the power to dictate the way schools in Scotland are run. Removing their voting rights is a significant step which will help to prevent them from imposing their religious agenda on Scotland's schools. We're urging other councils to follow suit.
"The Scottish government should also reconsider its position on this issue. Even if councils strip them of voting rights, religious representatives will continue to have undue influence on Scotland's education system. Without legislation in the Scottish parliament schools will continue to defer to religious interests, when the interests of children and taxpayers should come first."
The motion in Perth and Kinross passed by 21 votes to 19. McDade was one of three independents to support the motion, along with 15 SNP councillors, two Conservatives and a Labour councillor.
Fifteen Conservatives and four Liberal Democrats voted against. Some councillors proposed an alternative, wider review of council standing orders, in an apparent attempt to undermine the original motion.
According to a report in The Times in 2017 the Scottish government was considering plans which would have removed religious representatives' power over local education policy.
In 2013 a private member's bill was brought before the Scottish parliament in an attempt to abolish religious representatives' position on education committees.
Last year an active creationist was re-appointed to sit on the education committee at South Lanarkshire Council as a Church of Scotland representative.
Update (30 April 2019): Renfrewshire Council has announced that unelected religious representatives will continue to enjoy voting rights on its education committee, according to The Gazette.
Council leader Iain Nicolson (SNP) has defended the decision to keep the religious appointees. But SNP councillor Will Mylet has urged the council to rethink its stance and said he will ask its convener of education to remove the religious representatives' voting rights as soon as possible.
Image: Perth and Kinross Council logo, via Facebook.
Government recommends crematoria be for “all faiths and none”
Posted: Fri, 12 Apr 2019 15:02
New government guidance has said crematoria should accommodate the needs of people of "all faiths and none", following recommendations made by the National Secular Society.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government outlined the requirement in response to a review on crematoria provision and facilities.
The ministry said crematoria should "ensure that their facilities are suitable to meet the needs of all members of the community, including those from all faiths and none".
It added that it encouraged "the provision of interchangeable iconography" and said it would consult on revised guidance supporting this.
The guidance is broadly in line with the recommendations submitted by the NSS in its response to the consultation, which took place in 2016.
The NSS said "all civic crematoria should be religiously neutral spaces by default, providing a range religious symbols/iconography to be made available to users upon prior request".
It added that "fixed religious iconography should be removed from crematoria wherever it is practical and reasonable to do so".
Other respondents said iconography and other materials "were not provided to meet the needs of their faith or belief" and the design of crematoria "remained overwhelmingly Christian in ethos".
The government's response said it was "important to note that England has an established church" and the status of the Church of England "is protected in law". But it also said crematoria providers should "clearly be able to demonstrate sufficient understanding of faith and other community groups' requirements to be able to provide an appropriate service".
Last year's British Social Attitudes survey found that over 52% of people in Britain have no religion and only 14% identify as belonging to the Church of England.
A response from Wakefield Council said it provides a cross that can be covered at its crematoria and the cross is uncovered for only "about 30% services".
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans welcomed the government's recommendations.
"Crematoria should be welcoming and sensitive to all.
"To this end, it is reasonable that religious iconography should be made available for all who want it in their services. However, it should not be featured as standard. It is positive that the government, despite acknowledging the privileged position of the established church, has still recommended crematoria provisions be flexible and accommodating to people of all faiths and none."
Image: Garston / West Herts Crematorium, © Nigel Cox [CC BY-SA 2.0]
