The extract below is PART I  - INTRODUCTORY of the Capability Procedure Code of Practice, to be introduced under Section 8 of the Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Measure 2009 and Regulation 31(3) of the Ecclesistical Terms of Service Regulations 2009.

For a full copy of the Capability Code of Practice and Supporting Guidance please go to: http://www.commontenure.org 

For a copy of the Measure and the Regulations referred to above and below please also use the web-site link above.  

Extract

2.  The purpose of the capability procedure is improvement

2.1 The principal objective of a capability procedure is to help office holders whose performance falls below an acceptable minimum standard to improve in cases where the issues are not disciplinary in nature. It is expected that most performance-related matters will be identified and addressed informally without engaging this procedure. Nevertheless there will be occasions where informal steps are not appropriate and in such cases it will be necessary to implement the procedure. If an improvement in performance cannot be achieved through the capability procedure, there is a real possibility that the office holder will be removed from his or her current office, but only as a last resort.

2.2 Capability is demonstrated by the execution of the duties of a particular office to an acceptable minimum standard over a sustained period of time. It is about both what an office holder does and how he or she does it.

2.3. In assessing what is an acceptable minimum standard, the requirements of the post should be taken into account along with the more general requirements of the Canons, the Ordinal, and the Ecclesistical Offices (Terms of Service) Measure and Regulations 2009.

2.4 Lack of capability in one particular office does not neccessarily mean that the office holder is not capable of exercising any ministerial function. Removal from one particular office on capability grounds does not remove a cleric from holy orders or disqualify him or her from being apppointed to another office. Regulation 29 (1)(e) of the Ecclesiatical Offices (Terms of Service) Regulations 2009 provides a means whereby a cleric who has been removed from one office on capability grounds may be appointed to another office on a probationary basis.

2.5 Except in the elimited circumstances prescribed in Canon C8.2, clerics are unable to carry out any ministerial function without authority from the bishop. Before granting a licence or permission to officiate to clergy who have been removed from office for their incapability, or instituting them to a benefice, the bishop should satisfy himslef that their new duties are demonstrably different in nature from those of the previous post or that there is some other good reason why the previous lack of capability is no longer an issue.