A whole variety of policies are necessary and available for clergy, churchwardens and PCCs to use. Here is a helpful list as a ‘one stop shop’ to help you locate them.
If you can’t find what you are looking for, you can try: www. parishresources.org.uk
You can also try the clergy support pages of this website: Clergy Support – Diocese of Norwich
If there are other things you would find helpful which are not available here, please email richard.lamey@dioceseofnorwich.org
Policy templates
Chichester Diocese have some very helpful policy templates to assist you with registering with the Charity Commission and with fundraising applications. The templates offered here should be seen as guides for your own decision-making and consideration. Please take care to read them in detail, customise them to your own situation and agree their implementation at PCC level.
While we hope these will be useful, it is in no way suggested that any or all of them represent a full and complete compliance with regulatory guidance or the law.
To access these templates, follow the button below.
Safeguarding
- Model policies for the protection of children, young people and vulnerable adults can be found at: Parish Safeguarding Principles Policy 2020
- Parish Safeguarding Principles Policy Adults 2017
- Policies and Protocols
- Consent & declaration forms
- Parish Safeguarding Dashboards
Inviting Visiting or Occasional Preachers
Please read the following guide from the Bishop of Norwich
PCCs
- The rules of conduct for PCC meetings are contained in the Church Representation Rules: Church Representation Rules online – part 9 | The Church of England
- Necessary forms for annual meetings are here: The Annual Parochial Church Meeting & Church Electoral Rolls
- Policies for the working of a PCC, money and investments, and reserves can be found here: PCC Policies
- Forms regarding PCC members as trustees are at: Trusteeship
- Registration of the PCC with the Charity Commission (if necessary) is explained at: Registration with the Charity Commission
- This webpage is particularly helpful and comprehensive: Governance: PCCs & Synods | Diocese of London
PCC Roles
Click below for role descriptions in draft form, please adapt to your own church community.
- PCC Secretary
- Churchwarden
- Fabric Officer
- Deanery Synod Representative
- Safeguarding Officer
- Eco Church Representative
- Electoral Roll Officer (often the Secretary)
- PCC Treasuer
- Vice Chair of the PCC (often the Churchwarden)
- Health and Safety Officer
- Ordinary PCC Member
Church Officers
- What does a Church Officer do? A series of helpful videos and information via the Diocese of York website. Church Officers – Diocese of York
Parochial fees table
- The current parochial fees table is at: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2024-11/parochial-fees-a4_25_0.pdf
Parochial Expenses of the Clergy
- The guide to the Parochial expenses of the Clergy is at: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2017-10/parochial-expenses-guide-2017.pdf
Clergy Policies
- Occasional offices: The handbook for clergy produced by the Registrar General is at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-the-clergy
- Clergy Wellbeing: The Covenant for Clergy Care and Wellbeing is here: Clergy wellbeing
Deaneries
- Rules for Deanery Synods: Deanery Synod Rules
Health and Safety
- Ecclesiastical Insurance produce much guidance for events, risks and model policies for Health and Safety at https://www.ecclesiastical.com/church/
- The sample health and safety policy is at https://ecclesiastical.com/documents/church-health-and-safety-policy-template.pdf
- Risk assessment forms at https://ecclesiastical.com/documents/risk-assessment-template-small-churches.pdf https://ecclesiastical.com/documents/risk-assessment-template-large-churches.pdf
- There is also an overview of what risk assessments need to consider Church Risk Assessments | Risk Management
Eco Church
- Register for Eco Church here: https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/
Data and GDPR
- The annual returns for both numbers and finance can be found below, together with support for helping to complete them. Dashboards and Data
- Records and Retention Church of England records and retention policy: Records retention schedule 2025
- GDPR Information and policies are here: GDPR for churches
Faculties
- The online faculty system for both Route B and full faculty applications is at https://facultyonline.churchofengland.org/home
Employing staff locally
- If you are employing staff locally, you may wish to look at https://parishresources.org.uk/people/employing-staff/
Administration
- This is a helpful guide for administration: Administration
This page was last checked and updated on 30 November 2025.