CME Grants

Quite separate from the CME conferences held at the Bishop Mascall Centre, there is an annual grant available for serving clergy to arrange their own professional development.

Details of the amount of the grant and how it can be claimed are given in the FAQs below.  For further detail please contact the CME Officer, Revd Sarah Cawdell.

CME Grant - Frequently Asked Questions

Please click on the question to go to the appropriate section of the page.

Who gets a CME Grant?

How much is my CME Grant?

What can I spend it on?

How do I access my Grant?

Why can't Grant be spent on days or courses put on by your Diocesan Colleagues?

Can I claim travel costs as well?

Can I spend the Grant on buying books?

Do I need to use Grant to pay for your CME Conferences?

When do I need to claim?

What if I don't spend my entire Grant in one year?

Who gets a CME Grant?

CME Grants are given to all licensed clergy (and accredited lay workers) in the Diocese, and begin once POT has finished on the third anniversary of ordination. There is no need to apply to receive a CME grant: you'll get one automatically.

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How much is my CME Grant?

The current level of CME Grant is £100 per year.

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What can I spend it on?

There are two main areas Grants can be spent on: courses and retreats. The CME Officer has to approve each application (see below: How do I access my Grant?), but all normal clergy retreats would be covered, as is attendance at events such as New Wine, Spring Harvest or Greenbelt . When clergy go away together on a Chapter retreat, that would also qualify. The cost of conferences, study days or other courses can also be reimbursed. The provider of the course doesn't need to be a church body: grant has been spent on computer courses at the local college, Cruse bereavement courses and others. The two criteria are that firstly the course will benefit your ministry, and secondly that the course is provided by a body other than the Diocese of Hereford.

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How do I access my Grant?

There is an official application form, which can be downloaded by clicking on the link below.  However, don't worry if you don't have a copy to hand. You just need to send a letter to the CME Officer at the Diocesan Office, detailing the event, when it took (or is taking) place, what the event consists of and how much you have spent. We need this in writing for our files. Unusually, we need a letter rather than just an email, as we prefer something with your actual signature on it. We will then ask the Finance Office to issue a cheque to you. It is important to remember that the CME Officer needs to approve each CME Grant claim, by signing the internal cheque authorisation form.

Download an Application form (PDF, 82k)

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Why can't Grant be spent on days or courses put on by your Diocesan Colleagues?

It is settled diocesan policy that Grant can only be spent on events put on by outside bodies or agencies. The reason for this is simply transparency of budgets, so that the DBF is able to keep an overview of what each area of the work of the Diocese is really spending on its work.

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Can I claim travel costs as well?

Yes, you can. As long as an event qualifies to receive CME Grant, then you can claim the cost of travel to and from the event as well. This is at the diocesan rate: the full cost of public transport, or 40 ppm within the Diocese and 25 ppm outside the Diocese (including the portion of that journey within the Diocese).

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Can I spend the Grant on buying books?

This has often been asked, and sadly the answer is No. Grant needs to be spent on an event (a retreat or a course), approved by the CME Officer. We would encourage benefices to provide a book grant to clergy, and would remind clergy that the cost of all theological and service books may be set against tax as a part of their working expenses (it used to be that just Bibles and Prayer Books could be so set, but the provision is now much wider).

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Do I need to use Grant to pay for your CME Conferences?

No, these are normally funded directly from a different part of the CME budget (except for Reading Days at the Llan). However many conferences you attend, this will not affect your CME Grant. On an exceptional occasion it might potentially prove necessary to ask participants to make a contribution to the costs of a conference from their CME Grant (for example if an event would otherwise be prohibitively expensive to stage). However, this will be specified clearly in the CME Brochure,

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When do I need to claim?

Our normal practice is to reimburse you after an event has taken place. It may therefore be wise to contact us informally to check whether an event qualifies for CME Grant before you incur any costs.

We are willing to send a cheque in advance if you would prefer, though then we would of course expect the cheque to be returned if the event were cancelled or you could not go.

It is possible to send a cheque directly to an event organiser, but it is sometimes then difficult for organisers to ensure that the right cheque is matched to the right person. What is preferable in such cases is for us to send you a cheque in plenty of time, made payable to the event organiser, which you can then send on. Please be aware that it may take a couple of weeks, and sometimes even more, between the receipt of an application in the Office and the arrival of a cheque through your letterbox.

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What if I don't spend my entire Grant in one year?

CME Grant is given over a three year period (the latest period began in January 2006, and will end in December 2008). Although £100 Grant is awarded each year, you may spend up to £300 in any one three-year period (or triennium). You may therefore spend Grant ahead, but only up to the end of a triennium (there are exceptions for those taking authorised Study Leave). Once the Grant has been spent, there will be no more until the next triennium.

Conversely, you may also save Grant up during the three years. Each December / January during a triennium we will write to all clergy with remaining Grant to ask if you would like to carry that Grant over to the following year. You must reply positively to this letter by the date specified if you wish to do this. If you do not reply (or opt not to carry Grant over) then your remaining Grant balance will be lost.

All remaining Grant balances are automatically lost at the end of each triennium. These amounts (together with other amounts foregone during the triennium) are taken back into the diocesan budget and are applied towards the costs of the triennial diocesan Swanwick conference.

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