THERE is no doubt that the proposed change to education management we are revealing today, is a radical one.

But when it comes to education in Wales it is also true to say that radical solutions are needed.

It is too early to say whether or not we support this particular idea. That will very much depend on whether or not education standards improve.

But the Assembly proposal, sent for consultation to all 22 local authorities, is that their individual education budgets will be reduced.

The money taken away will go instead straight to regional consortia which will be tasked with improving standards in all schools.

The model for the change is Gwent's own Education Achievement Service which is already working to lift standards in school across all local authorities in the region.

And it appears that here the process has been accepted and is working well.

In other parts of Wales LEAs have apparently been reluctant to give the consortia the authority to identify and tackle issues regionally.

So the Assembly is, in effect, forcing their hand.

This is one step short of merging LEAs but it is no surprise that for for some time the Assembly, especially the previous education minister Leighton Andrews was determined to move to a more regional structure.

In our view this is probably just the first step of many towards a more regional structure for all local government in Wales.