It should come as no surprise to anyone that the three unions most concerned with education have come together to complain about the lack of consultation over education reform.

This is not the first time they have raised their concerns, but since they earlier went public, there seems to have been no further movement on the issue.

By and large, this newspaper supports the changes proposed by the Hopkins review and recognises they should be adopted as a package and not be seen as something to be cherry picked, where the easy decisions get made and the hard choices get put off.

But the reforms are doomed to fail if the committee tasked with their implementation fails to keep the administrators, principals and teachers involved. According to the unions, at least, that's exactly what is happening.

Involving the unions — and parent representatives — will inevitably string out the process, but that's a small price to pay if it means the education reforms proposed will actually work.