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12 March 2003
Contents Soundings:13
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Derek Brown
SACH President
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SACH
Soundings
No 13 March 2003
Page
2
Are
you a skimmer or a sinker?
I’d love to know how you read your SACH Soundings.
Are you a skimmer or a sinker? When the mailing comes in do you find
yourself flicking through the pages at the headlines hoping to find
something of interest before filing it reverently? Or, are you one to
immerse yourself in the fine print looking for speling (sic) mistakes,
rolling each phrase around your mouth like a fine wine?
Either way, I hope there is something to appeal to you in
this edition! There are certainly many topics of interest to chaplains the
length and breadth of the country at the moment. The Executive has been
monitoring these and I am pleased to say that we have had the first joint
meeting with the Executive of the College of Healthcare Chaplains (Scotland
Branch) at Perth in February. As you can imagine many of the issues current
in our sphere of work can best be addressed by all parties representing the
interests of chaplains. We are delighted at this opportunity to share with
the College and look forward to co-operating on other matters.
At our joint meeting we discussed several items of common
concern.
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The Scottish Executive Guidelines
for Spiritual Care have produced a welter of activity in some
areas and much less in others. Progress seemed to be much slower in those
places where Trusts employed only part-time chaplains. In Tayside there
has been a move to direct NHS employment as a result of the Guidelines and
this was likely to be the trend in the future. There was concern expressed
about whether the current interest in spiritual care in the NHS would be
maintained over the medium term.
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Handbook for Healthcare Chaplains
This handbook has been produced by National Mission and is due to be
presented to General Assembly in May for approval. Concern was voiced very
strongly about the lack of consultation with healthcare chaplains and the
many inaccuracies contained in the text. No account seemed to be taken of
the context in which chaplains work or the work that SACH and the College
have been doing on Codes of Conduct.
While acknowledging that a handbook for employees was something to be
desired both Executives agreed to write a joint letter expressing their
strong concern over the content and presentation of the handbook.
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Church of Scotland Pension Scheme
Concern was raised about the changes due to come into force in 2004 which
will mean that parish ministers living in a manse will enjoy a much
greater level of allowances than their chaplaincy colleagues who are also
church employees. A joint letter was sent to the Board of National Mission
pointing out this anomaly and asking for clarification.
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Agenda for Change
This is a comprehensive document covering terms and conditions for all NHS
staff. It will only affect those chaplains directly employed by Trusts but
the Board of National Mission would of necessity need to consider its
position regarding the changes. A consultation day to be held in Glasgow
on 24 March will help explain what it may mean for chaplains.
These are some of the major issues going on at the moment.
But what are your concerns? Are there things that need addressing in your
own hospitals? Please do let me know if you think there is anything that
SACH can do, since that is why we’re here!
I’m off to skim through War and Peace.
See you sometime.
Wishing you every blessing in your work.
Derek Brown
President
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