[1] In October 2006, the Howard government established NSCP, at an expected cost of $90 million, to provide $20,000 grants for schools to employ chaplains.
[9] Previously schools were only able to hire a secular welfare worker under the programme if they could demonstrate that their efforts to find an ordained chaplain had failed.
[10] In May 2014, the Abbott government removed the provision to fund secular student well-being officers, meaning all chaplains had to be affiliated with a religion.
The report noted the community generally supported the work of the chaplains in schools, but that the religious aspect of the program was contentious, recommending the name change and ability to hire secular counsellors.
However, the federal government responded by waiving that debt and making a commitment to circumvent the High Court ruling and continue with the budgeted $243 million spending on NSCP.
[22][23] It was announced in May 2014 that the provision to allow secular welfare workers under NSCP would be removed, changing the definition of chaplain to someone ordained, commissioned or endorsed by a recognised religious institution.
The NSCP is most commonly opposed on the grounds that chaplains are under-qualified to deal with vulnerable young people,[25] that it is not appropriate to have a religious worker in a public school,[9] and that the money spent on the programme is better needed elsewhere, such as to help children with disabilities.
[26] A July 2011 report by the Commonwealth Ombudsman recommended changes in guidelines after it was found that some chaplains provided one-on-one counselling when not qualified to do so.
[28] Complaints have also been made that chaplains have handed out literature stating homosexuality is wrong, that condoms promote promiscuity and are not effective for use as a contraceptive.
[25][26][36] The director of the Black Dog Institute has expressed concern at the funding of chaplaincy over programmes backed by scientific evidence.
[37] Associate Professor Andrea Reupert, director of Monash University's mental health in schools project described a chaplain's comments to a student suffering from an eating disorder that she was "hungering for the word of the Lord" as inappropriate and appalling.