THE leader of Herefordshire Council only received the "broad headlines" of the schools review before news of the proposed closure and merger programme was broken to teachers and governors.

Roger Phillips said that he and cabinet member for children's services Jenny Hyde had at that stage not seen all the documents outlining the proposals, because policy was for officers to draft papers without political interference.

Other councillors were also left in the dark over the proposals, with many facing the embarrassment of receiving phone calls from distressed staff and parents without knowing the scope of the council's plans.

At Tuesday's meeting of the children's services scrutiny committee, cllr Bob Matthews said sharing the information with members could have saved the council making a terrible blunder'.

"It would have been abundantly clear that the paper was in no fit shape to go out to the public," he said. "It will take years to recover the morale of parents and staff, and the confidence in the education system in this county The damage has been done."

At the meeting cllr Phillips said he shared the concern and regret at the way things had been done, and that there was a need to restore the trust between the authority and headteachers.

"We need to move to a place where we can have a sensible and constructive dialogue, that must be with schools, parents, and the community as well," he said.

Director of children's services Sharon Menghini said the correct process had been followed in formulating the draft proposals, and that the factual information showing a significant surplus capacity at Herefordshire's schools still had to be addressed.

"The leader of the council has recognised the depths of emotion that have been revealed by the public, schools, and indeed some of our own members," she said.

Members and officers will work together on a replacement set of proposals, which will come before the scrutiny committee for approval before going out to the public. Mrs Menghini also pledged to bring in an independent expert to analyse the data and figures that officers have been working from.