The Church of England today publishes the inspection report on one of its ministerial training institutes: the Canterbury Local Ministry Training Scheme.

The Church has a long track record of ensuring the quality of the initial training of its clergy by regular inspection of its training institutions. Theological colleges and part-time training courses are inspected every five years by teams of inspectors appointed by the bishops of the Church of England. Where training is delivered ecumenically, Church of England inspectors work in partnership with teams from the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church and the Baptist Union.

The report published today is available by clicking on the link to latest reports.

Statement from the Diocese of Canterbury

The Ministry Council Inspection Report on the Local Ministry Training Scheme

The Diocese of Canterbury has received the Ministry Council Inspection Report about its Local Ministry Training Scheme. A decision in principle to close this Scheme was taken and reported earlier in the Summer.

Other options for delivering appropriate training were explored when it became clear that there would be a significant reduction in student numbers for 2010 -2011. Running a faculty for 13 students spread over three years raised issues around community, formation and sustainability.

The Council of Reference of the Training Scheme concluded that students would receive better training within a more substantial learning community.

Following consultation with students and their incumbents, current students have elected to complete their training through the South East Institute for Theological Education. Considerable action has been taken to make the move to this new provision as smooth as possible for the current students.

All of these decisions were taken prior to the publication of the Report and would have been necessary even had the Report expressed full confidence in the former provision.

The Scheme will be further considered by the Standing Committee of the Canterbury Diocesan Synod at its next meeting.

Commenting on these developments and the Inspection Report, The Bishop of Dover, The Rt Revd Trevor Willmott said:

"We thank God for all the gifts that he has given to us through the local ministry pathway and believe that now is the right time for the diocese to become part of a bigger and more sustainable picture. We welcome the critical friendship that this Report has given us."

Notes

In October 2008 the Church of England put in place a series of measures to develop its approach to inspection. The main features are:

• In common with other walks of life, to publish inspection reports to inform dioceses, students and other interested parties of the standards being achieved in training institutions and to continue to raise the standard of training;

• To align the outcomes of inspection broadly with those used in Higher Education. From now on, inspections will result in the outcome of 'confidence', 'confidence with qualifications' or 'no confidence'.

• To devote more senior staff time to the support of inspection teams, offering enhanced training and support for inspection teams and better quality assurance for the whole process.

A full description of the standards for 'confidence', 'confidence with qualifications' and 'no confidence' is given at the beginning of each report. The first two designations mean that the inspectors regard the institution as having a good standard in its training. In the first, 'confidence', institutions generally show good or very good standards with a limited number of recommendations. In the second, the standards are generally good but there are areas to address. If the outcome is 'no confidence', then there will be major areas to address within a specified timetable.