In efforts to move mission back to the top of the Church agenda, the Anglican dioceses of Portsmouth and Winchester are joining forces to offer greater efficiency and support to schools and colleges in the region.

|PIC1|Education staff from both dioceses have come together to create a single team working throughout Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The new 'Mission and Education' team is based in Portsmouth's new diocesan offices in Peninsular House, next to the cross-channel ferry port. The staff members will serve 145 schools - covering more than 30,000 children - as well as all further education colleges and universities across both dioceses.

The two dioceses explain that they have been working together for many years, so the new joint working arrangement is a natural development of that reality.

The new arrangements will also help the Mission and Education team to support and advise "all schools" in both dioceses - not just Church of England ones.

Tony Blackshaw, who was Winchester's director of education, has now been appointed director of education for both dioceses.

Blackshaw said, "There are two opportunities to promote learning based on Christian values through schools. Firstly, there are our own church schools where children and young people can learn in the context of an explicitly Christian values framework.

"Secondly in the community schools, colleges and universities, we can work with others of good faith in developing approaches that are implicitly Christian. Not all our parishes have a church school, but most have a school or college, which we should also be engaging with. With the team we have assembled, we are able to offer a much stronger support to our schools and colleges across a much wider area."

In addition, Andrew Howard, Winchester's diocesan secretary, said: "We have been working closely with Portsmouth for many years to provide a better service to our schools and this is a logical development in our collaboration.

"Just as parishes are encouraged to work together and share resources to be more effective in mission, so dioceses are increasingly looking to work with each other to deliver their shared responsibilities. The new team will be a major resource to both dioceses and to all our parishes as they work with schools and the children within them."

The change was recommended by Portsmouth diocese's Central Structures Review Group, which spent 18 months studying diocesan administration. It urged the diocese to abolish a raft of boards and committees to release staff from bureaucracy and put mission back at the top of the diocese's agenda.

Michael Jordan, Portsmouth's diocesan secretary, said: "These joint arrangements were thought to be the most effective way of using our resources. It's not about saving money or cutting back on overall staff numbers - it's more about how dioceses can pool their expertise in a limited number of specialist areas to provide a more effective service to parishes, and the wider society.

"It also doesn't suggest any kind of future takeover of any one diocese by any other. Each diocese is choosing to work together in this limited way, but will still retain control over all the work that happens in its name."

The Mission and Education team is just one of four new sections working as part of Portsmouth's central staff team after the reorganisation suggested by the Central Structures Review Group. The other sections based at the diocesan offices in Peninsular House are Mission and Resources, Mission and Society and Mission and Discipleship.