ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the relationship between the political aspirations of health provision and the role of the chaplain. Before examining the effects of nationalization, and the emerging concept of chaplains as a professional group, the chapter examines two particular forms of change that serve to increase people's understanding of the position of chaplains. These two developments appear under the general headings of voluntary hospitals and workhouses. In effect, the fact of the NHS became the single greatest influence in the development of chaplaincy the idea that individual chaplains related to a shared body of knowledge, practice and professional standards. The period from 1958 to 1968 saw the intense growth in the consideration of professional identity for chaplains working in the NHS. Perhaps the single most significant change brought about by the creation of the NHS was the huge decline in the influence of the Church in health provision.
