This paper outlines the current System, approved by the Diocesan Synod in February 2002. The System aims to identify the ‘Potential’ income of parishes, based on their numerical strength and the average personal income of parishioners. It then uses the relative size of those Potential Incomes to divide up the Diocesan Budget between the parishes as the Parish Share.
The Assessment has 2 main elements:
A The Count
(i) Electoral Roll figures are collected annually and given a 1/3 weighting
(ii) Usual Sunday Adult Attendance figures are collected annually via cards completed by churchwardens during Lent. These figures are then averaged with figures for the previous 2 years and a 2/3 weighting is applied
Therefore (i) and (ii) achieve a measure of core membership but
(iii) Population Factor is added, reflecting the potential for PCCs to raise income from the wider community. The Factor increases on a sliding scale from 2 to 25, for parish populations from 1 to above 4400. Where a parish has more than one church or ‘worship centre’ the Factor is extended to reflect the possibility of contact with a greater proportion of the community.
B Income
(i) Census information provides details of the proportion of different income groups within communities, scheduled by the occupation of the ‘Head of Household’
(ii) Statistics produced by central government identify average incomes for each of those income groups.
The System calculates the average income of a parishioner (not church member) by combining the above data. It also deducts an allowance for basic living expenses before taking 5% of the resulting figure as an estimate of the potential giving by an ‘average’ parishioner at the rate of giving recommended by the General Synod.
Potential individual giving Income (B) is then multiplied by the ‘Count’ (A) to give the Basic Assessment of Parish Potential Income.
C Adjustments
The Basic Assessment for any parish is then subject to the following adjustments:
(i) Parish investment income in excess of £5000 per annum is added;
(ii) A deprivation allowance of 7% of Basic Assessment is deducted from the assessments of parishes in the poorest 20% band (with a double allowance for parishes in the poorest 10% band);
(iii) A basic allowance of £2000 per church building is deducted; and
(iv) A rural travel allowance of £750 is deducted to assist with travel expenses where 3 or more parishes share an incumbent.
D Net Assessment and Parish Share
The proportion of an individual parish’s Net Assessment to the total of all parishes’ Net Assessments is then applied to the total funding required from parishes to balance the Diocesan Budget. The resulting figure will be the individual Parish Share.
E MMA Share
With the grouping together of parishes into Mission and Ministry Areas (MMAs) with effect from 2008 the share figures of parishes within an MMA have been combined into an ‘MMA Share’ figure. Parishes have local freedom to renegotiate their contributions within that total, provided that the original total is achieved. The simple arithmetical total of the parish level share figures is also subject to a minimum (or floor), assessed to cover minimum 50% of the direct costs of all stipendiary ministry posts (excluding curates) serving the MMA. A maximum (or ceiling) level per post is also applied, this being calculated by dividing the total of the Diocesan Budget by the total number of parochial incumbent status posts in the Diocese.
