Faiths and further education - Church of England

09Chaplaincy in Today’s Colleges:A Summary for Managers7Chaplaincy in today’s colleges is an integral part of collegeprovision, and often located within student services. It responds tothe needs of today’s students, often from very varied faithbackgrounds, and to the local context of the college.The mainelements – principles, practice and process – are set out below.Principles: what FE chaplaincy activity is about8Principle 1: FE chaplaincy has always been ecumenical in characterand is now generally multi-faith, both in principle and practice.Allchaplaincies are established as a partnership between colleges andfaith communities, to meet the needs of all students of any faith, ornone.9Principle 2: FE chaplaincies are usually multi-faith teams, built intocollege structures, with clear definitions of roles and responsibilitiesagreed by all concerned, with agreed minimum standards for office,meeting space and operational conduct.10Principle 3: FE chaplaincies do not indulge in overt proselytism(that is, trying to convert students from one faith to another). FEchaplains are there to help students in their spiritual and moraldevelopment, to explore faith, and to seek meaning and purpose inlife.Where appropriate, chaplaincies can act as signposts to localfaith communities.Practice: what FE chaplaincy does11FE chaplaincies exist for the benefit of all in the college.Students• to be a resource for spiritual and moral development• to help individuals at times of spiritual need or crisis• to help all groups and communities which wish to practise theirfaith.Staff• to be a resource at times of spiritual need or crisis• to facilitate curriculum input on spiritual, moral or religious issues• to facilitate partnerships and links with communities.Colleges, principals and senior management teams• to maintain an ethos of learning that nurtures the whole personand the whole community• to enable the college to meet Ofsted and Children Actrequirements• to support access, retention and recruitment of students from allcommunities, especially those from deprived and marginalisedcommunities.Process: how we do it12Most successful chaplaincy works on the basis of a code of practiceor agreement. In this agreement, the college and the chaplaincytogether set out expectations and responsibilities for both sides.This normally includes the following.• Leadership: a half-time (sometimes full-time, sometimes less)team leader responsible for managing the team, reporting to theprincipal and/or head of student services• Funding: most posts are funded by colleges.A few have jointfunding with faith communities• Chaplaincy teams: may include lay and ordained, paid (forexample, church or mosque representatives on a part-time basis)and volunteers (for example, a retired FE lecturer from a localcongregation)• Recruitment: may be through local faith community networks,or through standard advertisement and selection procedures• Training: increasingly, chaplains are trained through accreditedtraining courses, as well as the regular regional and nationaltraining events• NEAFE, the Faiths in FE Forum, the Churches’ National Adviserin Further Education and their regional networks: available tosupport colleges in developing or strengthening chaplaincyprovision.