A KEY plank of the biggest shake-up of the way schools are run in Scotland has been attacked as “utterly incoherent”.

Last week, the Scottish Government announced plans to establish up to seven regional bodies to drive school improvement instead of councils.

John Swinney, the Education Secretary, said the “regional collaboratives” would be able to provide more consistent support to schools across the country.

And he cited the example of an alliance of seven councils in the north of Scotland that have already come together to share services.

However, Keir Bloomer, an independent educational consultant, said the government’s plans were “dysfunctional” because they would be forced rather than developing naturally like the Northern Alliance.

A particular concern is the creation of a director for each collaborative who will report to the chief inspector of schools.

Speaking at a Scotland Policy Conferences event in Edinburgh he said: “The government collaboratives are compulsory, they are top-down, they are authoritarian, unwanted, bureaucratic and hierarchical.

“They reinforce all of the worst characteristics of the culture of Scottish education.”

Mr Bloomer said there was a “dysfunction” built into the proposals adding: “We need to oppose an utterly incoherent concept of what collaboratives might be like.”

Walter Humes, an honorary professor at Stirling University, said schools needed better support, but also questioned the role of regions in delivering it.

He said: “It has been evident for some time that local authorities have been struggling to provide the level of support that is needed.

“The latest reforms aim to liberate and empower teachers and headteachers, but there is a tension throughout the proposals between freedom and control. “Teachers, it is said, are to be encouraged to make local decisions, but all this is to take place within an overarching bureaucratic structure.”

However, Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union, said there was an opportunity with the establishment of collaboratives to ensure all schools got better support.

He warned previous networks of council quality improvement officers had disappeared because of cuts and said most councils no longer had a dedicated director of education.

“I’m not convinced we need regional directors or that they should be managed by the inspectorate, but there is a huge gap in our education system regarding support for teachers and the collaboratives give us an opportunity to address that,” he said.