By John Swinney

LAST week I published the Scottish Government’s plans to reform school education.

That reform is needed in undeniable. Scotland’s schools have great strengths, but we they face real challenges too, and it’s time to tackle them.

A simple, powerful idea is at the heart of my proposals – we are putting more power and money in the hands of schools and teachers.

That means decisions about the learning of young people being made by the people who know them best – their parents, teachers, school and young people themselves.

We believe it will make a tangible difference to the education pupils receive.

By giving schools the freedom to take decisions, we are trusting our educational professionals – our teachers – to lead the way in closing the attainment gap and raising the bar for all.

That is the heart of our reform, but we recognise that schools cannot do this alone. They need additional resources and support to deliver.

That’s why we have set out three new support pillars. The first is focused on teachers themselves, with reformed initial teacher education and more career professional development.

The second focuses on councils, making sure they provide high quality HR, payroll and logistical support.

This avoids burdening headteachers with administration roles they neither want nor need.

Councils will also provide important democratic accountability on issues such as the number of schools, the condition of buildings, and, perhaps most crucially, the leadership of our schools.

The third pillar is made up of the new Regional Improvement Collaboratives.

These pool the resources of councils, Education Scotland and other agencies so that schools can learn from each other about what works and what doesn’t.

When a school needs help to improve, when they need help to raise the standards they are achieving, they will be able to access expert, peer-led, professional help, backed by resources.

As the Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union has pointed out, right now, in too many parts of Scotland, that help either is not there or does not have the strength, depth and expertise to make a difference. That has to change.

By bringing together all the key parts of the system to collaborate in providing that support, we can deliver into the hands of schools and teachers the help and resources they need to transform children’s lives.

That ethos of placing power and resources in the hands of our teachers underpins the whole reform package. We will all – government, councils, and agencies – support our schools to do what they do best: transform the life chances of our children.

The Scottish Government is consulting on plans to devolve more funding to schools as well as whether new regional collaboratives should receive direct funding. The consultation closes on October 13.