"NHS Trusts will recently have received notification of a change to the NHS data set entitled as shown above. This is the list of religions and belief systems for use by the NHS that has approval by the Information Standards Board for Health and Social Care (ISB HaSC). Please also note that on the cover page of each DSCN (Data Set Change Notice) there is a link to a page containing the associated submission and ISB HaSC output documents.
By way of background, chaplains need to know that a DSCN is the formal notification to Trusts of major changes to systems. There is usually a time-lag between the issuing of the Notice and its actual implementation. In the case of the DSCN Religious or Other Belief System Affiliation Code there is a likely 33 month time lag between the Effective Date (1.06.09) and the Conformance Date 31.03.2012. The Effective Date is the date from which a new standard can be used but may not be mandatory. The Conformance Date is the date from which the service and IT system suppliers must use the standard as envisaged: 'must use the standard effectively and assessed for use'. Given the changes to the Code, it is unlikely that Trusts will be in a position to use it directly. It is the waiting time for the Trust system supplier to develop the software for the code which will have dictated the time-lag between the Effective Date and the Conformance Date. Chaplains may however wish to determine what state of readiness their Trust has for the new Code, and when the Trust expects the Code to become fully operational. The answers to this question will help chaplains determine what data the chaplaincy department might keep for their own use in this respect.
Finally and for those who do not already know, the list of Religious or Other Belief System Affiliations results from the recent project on consent sponsored by the Chief Nursing Officer of the Department of Health, England. The Reverend Susan Hollins was project officer for this work and she deserves great credit for initiating the work plan, collating the contribution of others and then seeing this through to publication.
The
Reverend Edward J Lewis"
July 2009