Scheme-change delight

A Scottish Government u-turn on the creation of regional education boards has been welcomed.

Convener of Education at North Lanarkshire Council, Frank McNally, pictured left, said the parliament had “seen sense”.

The decision follows news that after reaching an agreement with Cosla, Education Minister John Swinney has ditched plans to drastically reduce the influence of councils in running schools.

The plans for “re g i o n a l collaboratives” were claimed by the Scottish Government to be necessary to provide more consistent support to schools across council boundaries.

However, local authorities said they believe that the plans deliberately sidelined council officials and democratically- elected education committees because they were to be run by independent directors reporting to the chief inspector of schools at Education Scotland.

The compromise agreement will mean that the formal accountability for education and performance will remain with individual local authorities in line with statutory duties, with a lead officer being appointed from among the existing chief education officers forming the collaboratives.

Mr McNally said: “I am pleased that the Scottish Government has seen sense on this matter and listened to members of Cosla, including from some within their own party, and scaled back these plans, which would have eroded local accountability and democracy within our education system.

“I look forward to working with Cosla and the government in the coming weeks and months to ensure that these proposed reforms to education are in the best interests of our young people.”