Church of England shelves consultation on multi-academy trust inspections

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.

Andy Wolfe, the Church of England’s interim education chief, said he was working with the government and other faith school providers to understand how “accountability for the distinctive Christian character and provision of church schools might operate”.

“[This would be] where these aspects sit outside Ofsted inspection in multi‑academy trusts.

“This work will focus on what is genuinely helpful to trust leaders and will not be about increasing workload for schools or trusts.”

The consultation was launched last week. Documents said the purpose of the inspections was to “evaluate the effectiveness of a MAT in upholding its specific responsibilities for Church of England schools”.

They would “safeguard” the schools’ “presence in and impact on local communities” and explore the trust’s relationship with its local diocesan board of education (DBE).

They would also establish whether DBEs “can, with confidence, consent” to more of their primaries and secondaries joining the chains.

Three years of pilots

The Department for Education had asked the church to run three years of pilots, with six trusts assessed every 12 months, the documents added.

But one trust leader, who wanted to remain anonymous, argued the proposals were “trying to answer a question that we’re already able to answer”.

They believe any trust underperformance would already be found through the church’s existing inspections of schools.

“That’s the evidence you need if you’re a diocese,” they added.

“The concerns are around workload and capacity at a time when stakes are rising in relation to pupil outcomes and Ofsted. It seems to be another administrative burden on trusts that’s not applied to others.”

Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the school leaders’ union ASCL, also cautioned against overburdening school and trust leaders before a framework for MAT inspections had been published.

“It’s important that these new inspections are proportionate and effective, without adding to the workload of trust leaders. Feedback from pilot schemes will need to be carefully considered.”

The consultation papers said the checks would be implemented in MATs that had a “mix” of church and non-church schools, as well as in those only religious academies.

The assessments – lasting up to four days – would relate to the trust’s work with church schools and would not be graded or awarded an “overall binary judgment”.

Instead, outcomes would be “summed up within a narrative evaluative response to each inspection question”.

‘Creeping church control’

Andrew Copson, the chief executive of Humanists UK, said the plans pointed “to creeping church control over parts of the state school system”.

“The DfE and ministers should not encourage religious authorities to expand their role in state-funded education,” he said.

“They should be doing the opposite and increasing public oversight across all state-funded religious educational establishments.”

However, Ian Hartwright, of the National Association of Headteachers, said the union broadly supported the church’s plans.

The inspections were set to begin in 2026-27. But Wolfe said the postponement would give more time “to reflect, clarify and engage further with key stakeholders.

“We plan to revisit this later in the year.”

Ministers added an amendment to the schools bill to introduce Ofsted trust inspections as early as next year.

The changes will give the government sweeping powers to close MATs based on the results of the checks.

Paul Barber, the director of the Catholic Education Service, also revealed his organisation had established a working group to produce a framework for piloting its own MAT inspections.

“The intention is to reflect the DfE’s trust quality descriptors which will be used as the basis for Ofsted’s inspection of MATs,” he said.