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 current Online Faculty System will be switched off on 9th October, and the new Portal will be available for use from 14th October. It is hoped that the new system will be a substantial improvement and will reduce the amount of time spent by everyone involved in developing, advising, and approving submissions.
Users will be able to register for the new system as required from October through the CofE Portal. We’ll contact you with more details about registration later in the year: you do not need to take any action on this now.
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, each session will have the same content, and a recording will be made available for people who can’t attend. To register for these sessions, please use these links:
- 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
We will also be running sessions on Zoom for people in the Diocese of Coventry once the system is launched, on these dates:
- Wednesday 15th October at 10am
- Thursday 16th October at 7.30pm
- Tuesday 21st October at 7.30pm
- Thursday 23rd October at 3pm
To register for these sessions, please click here.
Additional support in the form of ‘how to’ videos will be built into the site to guide new users through the Faculty process.
Some additional information and FAQs are on the Church of England website here. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact Tim Latham (DAC Secretary).