CONTROVERSIAL plans to reform Scottish education risk the same high-profile problems faced during the creation of the single police force, the country's most senior councillor has claimed.

David O'Neill, president of local government organisation Cosla, will use the country's biggest event for councils to attack plans by ministers to overhaul how schools are run.

The Government is currently consulting on creating regional education boards and plans to hand more power and budgets to headteachers, moves which, it has been claimed, would seriously dilute to role of councils in running schools.

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Mr O'Neill will also tell delegates at Cosla's annual conference that education is just one of a number of potential reforms which would lead to the break-up of local services and democratic control of them.

The two-day event, billed as the most significant event in the local government calendar, will also hear from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Finance Secretary Derek Mackay at the Crieff conference.

It is the first Cosla gathering since both the tightest local government settlement in a generation and an announcement by Ms Sturgeon that she would introduce a parliamentary bill to "review the roles and responsibilities of local authorities".

In his keynote speech on Thursday, Mr O'Neill will warn that centralisation, including removing control over education from councils, would make the service more expensive to run as well as reducing rather than improving outcomes for students.

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He will also compare potential reform with the creation of Police Scotland, the fall-out of which has sparked public relations troubles for the force, most notably the M9 crash.

Mr O'Neill will say: "Government must hold back on legislative proposals that fragment public services locally. Sadly as many in this room will believe we are beginning to see in relation to education.

"School is not the problem, teachers are not the problem, education is not the problem, councils have a good record in education and are not the problem, the OECD report stated local government is not the problem. And we all know why. Because poverty is the problem.

"There seems to be in Scotland a national view from both government and Parliament of a fall-back position that when money is tight or when we wish to direct services to be effective and efficient, centralisation is the only answer. And we cannot allow that to happen in education.

"I resist making the political point that Fire nor Police have hardly been a roaring success.

"From what I saw in the Programme for Government which was announced last month there are several issues coming at us shortly which will pose all of us in this room some real serious challenges in what we all want to achieve."

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Mr O'Neill recently said the Government's plans to use £100million from an increase in council tax to fund efforts to raise attainment destroyed the "clear and honourable link between taxes raised from local householders being spent on local services".

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We are decentralising power to schools by making teachers and parents the key decision makers in the life of their schools. We are doing this because we believe that decisions about children’s learning and school life should be taken at school level, supported by parents and the local community.

"This is a vision of empowerment and devolution and our reforms will be based on evidence of what works. Our school governance review will seek views on how best to achieve this, focusing on improving education and closing the attainment gap in schools across Scotland.”