JOHN Swinney is a busy man. Since May, when he was appointed Education Secretary, he has been seen tackling the fall-out from the named person scheme, meeting the victims of historic child abuse and grappling with school bureaucracy.

There was no let up on Tuesday when he unveiled a review of school governance which promises a significant shift of power and funding from councils to headteachers.

The proposals are founded on the principle that, where possible, decisions should be devolved to schools. Mr Swinney also confirmed the Scottish Government would introduce new educational regions through which councils and others could collaborate on the delivery of functions not handed over to schools.

The minister made it plain he expects the underlying values of comprehensive education system, such as no academic selection, to be retained and he explicitly ruled out the setting up of privately-run Academies or Grammar Schools, as is the case in England. he also said it was not his intention to allow an opt out from council control.

As ever with the political process the rhetoric is one thing, but there are many unanswered questions about what Scotland's education system will look like in future, whether the changes will deliver improvements and even whether the eventual model will be as radical as that suggested.

It is clear something of a turf war between central and local government is imminent as councils fight for retention of control over schools and budgets under the banner of local democratic accountability, which Mr Swinney said they would retain.

The minister also conceded there will "inevitably" be some services that will remain the responsibility of other organisations, including local authorities.

What these services are will have a significant bearing on the shape of the reforms. It seems obvious services such as the procurement of supplies or building refurbishments are best handled at a level above individual schools.

Other services unlikely to end up with schools are specialist support services such as educational psychology and the key issue of hiring and firing of teachers which brings with it control of the largest single element of the education budget.

Ultimately the most important question is one of accountability. Schools are inspected infrequently by Education Scotland and, if there is to be empowerment of headteachers and communities, who decides when things are going wrong and who acts on those concerns?

And the elephant in the room is the case made by the parents from St Joseph's Primary School in Milngavie, on the outskirts of Glasgow, to set up their own autonomous school, funded in the main by the Scottish Government. The parents are still waiting for a decision and much of the government's talk of local empowerment chimes with their case.

The key question is what signal would be sent if Mr Swinney allows a new school to be set up outside council control at a time when he is trying to fashion a new future which harnesses the power of parents, but also retains key elements of what councils currently deliver, including "democratic accountability".