The Network’s primary objective is to ensure equal access for all patients regardless of religion and belief to pastoral, spiritual, and religious care services. We do this by working closely with the NHS to ensure that due regard is given to the General Equality Duty, set out in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. NHS Trusts and other public institutions must have due regard to the need to:
- Eliminate discrimination, harassment, and victimisation
- Advance opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not share it
- Foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not
Staff and volunteers of pastoral, spiritual, and religious care services are often the best placed to advocate on behalf of those who do not have a voice while in hospital. As a network, it is our mission to promote the moral and practical rationale for inclusive provision, as a means to increasing service uptake for disadvantaged groups.
In 2018, the Network was commissioned to develop a toolkit that chaplaincy teams could use in order to evaluate and improve their service delivery models in relation to Equality and Diversity (E&D). You can download the toolkit and supporting documents or view them online below:
- Introduction to the Chaplaincy E&D Evaluation toolkit
- Project Narrative - Development of E&D Toolkit
- Chaplaincy E&D Evaluation Toolkit