Having appropriate oversight structures and tools in place to support lay employees is a really important element of church/circuit & district responsibility. It helps with reviewing the work done by individuals & evaluating its impact but also ensuring the wellbeing and confidence of the individual carrying out the role.
Best practice in supporting lay employees in paid roles includes the provision of a nominated line manager. Roles with a broad remit, covering a number of churches or circuits would also benefit from a Support Group.
The nominated line manager, ideally should have had previous staff management experience either in a church or non-church environment. The Line Manager could be a lay volunteer or if necessary a presbyter or deacon. Line management in our church context includes an element of reflective practice for those roles where a pastoral or missional encounter is the primary purpose and the colleague is not in reflective supervision https://www.methodist.org.uk/for-churches/ministries/supervision/about-supervision/.
Every line manager is then invited to attend a workshop run through the learning network which offers support to new line managers and aims to enhance the skills of those experienced in line management from other contexts.
Day to day duties and activities are also monitored by the Line Manager and this role is the first point of contact for any disciplinary or grievance matters. Supporting advice is always available through your District Lay Employment Secretary. The training provided also offers some information about this and best practice approaches as you can see from the training outline on the events page.
The Lay Employee Support Group would usually be made up of a group of around 4-6 individuals, often including the Line Manager of the lay employee. The support group works as a sounding board offering a broader view of the work underway as well as offering pastoral support
Regular thought needs to be given to the Past Cases Review carried out by the Methodist Church. All line managers and support groups should be aware of the review and the impact on the employment and pastoral relationship with the employee. See Past Cases Review for more detail.