Although government legislation around this is clear it seems it is ahead of general understanding and awareness and at the local level, there is still a significant amount of confusion about whether religious organisations/faith-based organisations can genuinely receive public funding.
Equality legislation has been introduced for religion and belief which ensures two things:
- Protection from discrimination in the workplace for people who have a religion or a belief. The general public seem to be accepting of this.
- Religious organisations/faith-based organisations are allowed to maintain their ethos by recruiting people who share their faith. This appears not to be so acceptable and tends to become problematic when public funding is sought.
We believe that behind this confusion is fear of and ignorance about faith. People either do not understand what it means to have a faith motivation or they are fearful of its consequences.
Faithworks is committed to responding to this confusion by creating clarity around two issues:
- Faith groups, communities and people of faith have an equal right to their identity.
Community cohesion only begins to be possible when each faith has the opportunity to be itself. Nothing is a greater threat to good community relations than misconstruing people’s identities or homogenising different faith identities as one. Distinctive Faith enables faiths to maintain their unique characteristics while being able to relate to the needs of communities other than their own.
- This right should be accompanied by a responsibility to embrace diversity.
Distinctive Faith is not meant to be separatist but inclusive and able to recognise and relate to the needs of the community. Faithworks sets out its commitment to serving community in its Faithworks Charter, which contains standards about how to treat all people with respect and dignity, about valuing people and about best practice. All Faithworks affiliates are required to sign up to this Charter.
Faithworks believes that the way to overcome the fear that exists in the public domain about the role of religious/faith-based organisations is to gain agreement to the need for a Faith Standard. This would operate in the same way as the standards for children’s work, family work etc. Once an organisation has met the standard, they can be recognised as an approved provider/supplier.
A Faith Standard would demonstrate that an organisation is committed to equal opportunities, caries out open recruitment, applies the religious discrimination legislation fairly, is able to serve the needs of the whole community and so on.
We believe that this would dispel public suspicion and inspire local authority confidence. In doing so it would enable religious/faith-based organisations to be supported in their essential work in communities – serving the poor and marginalized and thus ultimately changing the face of this nation.
Faithworks is, therefore, calling on the government to recognise the need for a Faith Standard and suggests that the Office of the Third Sector, the Department of Communities and Local Government together with the Compact Commissioner and the National Council of Voluntary Organisations draw up an appropriate project proposal.
A legal right to a faith identity accompanied by a recognised standard of behaviour in public life is Faithworks’ practical response to the debate about the role of faith in society in 21st Century Britain.
Integration and Cohesion: A Faithworks Perspective
The Commission on Integration and Cohesion recently invited organisations and individuals in communities across the country to articulate their view of integration and cohesion and what practical steps can be taken to make communities more cohesive and integrated places to live. Faithworks submitted a perspective which reiterated our call for a Framework of Faith. To read the submission click on the download link in the right hand panel.
