The Church of England has shelved a consultation on plans to launch its own multi-academy trust inspections, just days after first unveiling the proposals.

Church bosses, who were approached by the government to pilot the checks, said they made the decision after receiving the first batch of responses to its vision for the MAT-level assessments.

But they expect to “revisit” the plans later in the year, as their Catholic counterparts establish a “working group” to draw up their own framework to trial trust inspections.