The online faculty system which all churches use to request permission to repair or make changes to their buildings under the Faculty Jurisdiction Rules is being upgraded to a new Building Management Portal.
The new system is currently being tested with a ‘go live’ date planned for mid-October and it is hoped that it will deliver substantial improvements for users and the wider Church.
The upgrade will reduce the amount of time spent by everyone involved in developing, advising, and approving submissions, as well as delivering improved system security and long-term cost savings.
Users will be able to register for the new system as required from October (once you need to make a new application on the new system), and we’ll contact you with more details about registration later in the year: you do not need to take any action on this now. Our Church Buildings team has been running a series of training sessions on the new system and there will be further training offered both locally nationally from September.
Ongoing cases
All 96,000 ongoing and historical cases along with associated documents will be transferred from the current system to the new site.
It is hoped that the upgraded system will reduce the administrative burden attached
to church administration and casework management. It will also include enhanced functionality including autosave and a more user-friendly process for submitting applications.
Training and support
National webinars for all system parish users will be provided in September. These are limited to 1000 people each and each session will have the same content. A recording will be made available to users who can’t attend. If you have already attended one of our locally-run Church Buildings Team sessions on the system, you don’t need to attend these sessions unless you want a refresher.
Additional support in the form of ‘how to’ video prompts will be built into the site to guide new users through the Faculty process.
Parish webinars:
- Tuesday 23 September, 13:30 – 14:30. Register on Teams
- Wednesday 24 September, 13:30 – 14:30. Register on Teams
- Thursday 25 September, 13:30 – 14:30. Register on Teams
Diocesan in-person training:
- Wednesday 12 November, 10.30 – 1 at the Diocesan Office in Worcester (look out for details of how to book in diocesan mailings nearer the time).
Project information and FAQs are available during this test phase on the C of E website.
Contact the Church Buildings Team if you have any questions – churches@cofe-worcester.org.uk
