Professor Gavin McCrone has made explicit his desire to deliver nothing less than a new framework for the teaching profession.

Prof Gavin McCrone: Heading the inquiry

It is believed collective, national bargaining will be retained - this is despite the Scottish Executive's abolition of the Scottish Joint Negotiating Committee (SJNC), whose agreements had the force of law.

This collective bargaining will include teachers and their local authority employers as before, but head teachers will have a seat at the table for the first time.

It is also understood that new agreements would not have statutory effect because at present the current employment law is deemed to be enough protection.

McCrone is thought to recommend that there will be a capacity for local deals to be struck between teachers and local authorities to suit local conditions.

Pay review body

But core pay and conditions would be expected to be negotiated centrally.

The new collective bargaining machinery would be able to set pay and conditions on an annual basis, but it could agree to longer deals of two or three years.

McCrone is expected to raise the possibility of a small, independent pay review body which would examine pay and conditions.

The long summer holidays could be a casualty, with teachers encouraged to eat into them to make way for new term times and in-service training

Kenneth Macdonald, education correspondent

But, unlike south of the border, this would not have the ability to impose pay rises. It would simply report its findings to the national bargaining machinery to inform their decisions.

The final bill for new contracts, new career structures and the other likely recommendations is likely to be high - very high.

It will be a thick sugar coating on a - in some ways - bitter pill for teachers.

It is likely there will be a streamlined structure for a "modernised" teaching profession with fewer grades and promoted posts.

The most likely model is a basic teachers' grade with basic hours, responsibilities - and pay.

'Longer hours'

The option of more responsibilities would lead to longer and more flexible working hours - including such things as extra-curricular activities and after school/study support clubs - and a requirement to undertake professional development.

That would be rewarded by greatly increased salaries.

It is widely expected that a big pay rise will be recommended for even rank-and-file teachers.

The last SJNC deal was just 2.5% - on the unspoken assumption that McCrone would herald a big pay rise.

Scotland's biggest teaching union, the EIS, commissioned independent research which claimed teachers would need �100 a week pay rise just to keep up.

There could be proposals to help disillusioned, burned-out and older teachers bail out of the profession. Only 29% of all teaching staff are under 40 - six out of 10 teachers are aged between 40 and 54.

The long summer holidays could be a casualty, with teachers encouraged to eat into them to make way for new term times and in-service training.

Performance-related pay

Teachers are currently contracted to a 39-week year.

The minimum number of teachers' working hours under the control of head teachers - currently 27.5 per week - can be expected to rise.

Classroom teaching to be "rewarded"

The quid pro quo would be measures to let teachers teach rather than wade through the shedfuls of bureaucracy they have to at present.

Teachers want control over the time they use preparation and marking - so-called "non-contact time".

Performance-related pay is the source of much contention in England, but is highly unlikely to be an issue north of the border.

I understand McCrone will dwarf the cost of the student finance reforms recommended by the Cubie Report.

Like Cubie, you can expect McCrone to call for the whole report to be implemented as a package - not "cherry-picked" by the politicians.

Unlike Cubie, implementing it won't be down to the politicians alone.

The report's publication will herald months of horse-trading, posturing and sabre-rattling up to, and possibly including, industrial action.

If it is to happen without blood on the walls and or a demoralised, demotivated teaching profession there will have to be a deal involving teachers, national and local government, parents and - who knows - maybe even pupils.