Methodist Conference 2007 has now finished and decisions have been made in relation to Children's and Youth work. There was much time devoted to this particular area of work and the Conference took its responsibilities very seriously. Although there will still be changes to individual jobs we at MethodistChildren are delighted that the Conference has made such a clear commitment to ensuring that the Methodist Church continues to deliver strategic advice and resources for children's ministry.
Staffing Support for work with Under-19s in the reconfigured Team Conference members have expressed concerns about the intended levels of staffing within the reconfigured connexional Team to support work with children and young people. This concern is reflected in several of the Memorials presented to the Conference and has been the subject of debate in the media and of a petition. It was also reflected in discussions within the Methodist Council. Paragraph 8.7 of the report, Enabling Work with Under-19s, would, if the report is adopted, require the Council to ensure that the staffing levels are appropriate for the work to be undertaken. What might this mean in practice from September 2008? The Council is recommending that a major project be initiated as soon as possible to develop, with enhanced energy, initiatives to reach those who are completely outside any Christian community. This project will be staffed by a qualified, experienced, full time officer. Its outcomes may be of various kinds, but they might well include recommendations about future connexional team staffing. Therefore the initial arrangements must be regarded as subject to development in the light of that work. There will also be from September 2008 at least four further staff within the Discipleship and Ministries cluster of the Team, working as one specialist Team but covering the range of expertise across the 0-19 age range. If continued Government funding is obtained, and there are good reasons to be optimistic about that, this staffing level would be enhanced. In addition to that, the decision of Conference to move forward on developing the Youth Participation strategy requires as a first step, in the view of the Joint Secretaries’ Group, a further, new complement of at least two staff, again, suitably qualified and experienced, to develop that project. The number would increase as and when the scale of the strategy is expanded towards the scale envisaged in the Youth Conference proposals. It will be necessary to recruit the two staff mentioned here within the connexional year 2007-8 in order to progress the participation process. All staff working on the Youth Participation strategy would also be part of the one Team supporting our work with children and young people. Adding all these together, we envisage at least seven full time equivalent posts from September 2008 covering the under-19s work. In addition there will be other staff providing administrative support, safeguarding advice, communications expertise and support for JMA and World Action, who will be located for management purposes in other parts of the Team, but all working together in a collaborative and flexible manner which will be the practice within the way of working for the reconfigured Team. |
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you require any further information please contact us on children@methodistchurch.org.uk MethodistChildren is part of the Connexional Team of the |
