19 October 2012
The Church of England has published an inspection report on the
All Saints' Centre for Mission and Ministry within the Southern
North West Training Partnership.
The
report is available online on the Church of England
website.
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 six 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.
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.