Government watchdogs descend on Bradford today to check the health of the district's reformed education service.

The three week Ofsted visit is a rigorous examination of how the system is working, since it was castigated by the agency two years ago. The visit is a full inspection and the team's findings will be published after Christmas.

Ofsted last visited the local education authority in January 2000, and slated it, saying it was "failing children miserably".

Since then dramatic changes have taken place, with the education authority being "out-sourced" to the private sector.

Other changes include Labour losing control of the Council, which is now run by Conservatives in alliance with Liberal Democrats; an increase in the amount of money being spent on schools; and the formation of a new body, the Education Policy Partnership, which brings together different groups to formulate policy.

Meanwhile, the switch from three tier to two tier schooling has fully taken effect and building work is taking place or is planned at 150 schools.

But improvements to classroom standards are taking more time to filter through. Schools bosses were encouraged by this summer's exam results, which increased by twice the national average, but Education Bradford failed to meet a 40 per cent target for the number of school leavers gaining at least five C grades.

And the management of arrangements for children with special education need, one area badly criticised last time, is still in flux as a new system is only coming into use this term.

Mark Pattison, Education Bradford's managing director, said: "We welcome the inspection team from Ofsted. We expect they will find a number of positive things to say about the work we are undertaking.

"We will be stressing the fact that it is the early stages of our contract and we have never said there will be any quick fixes.

"We will be bringing about a long-term programme of improvement where the more significant impact will be clearly seen a bit further down the line. We believe we will be able to demonstrate to the Ofsted inspectors that we are putting in place the foundations for improvement in the future."

Phil Green, Bradford Council's Director of Education, said: "This Ofsted inspection is a valuable opportunity for us to get a well-informed, external view on our progress over the last two years.

"Many positive changes have been made, but we are far from complacent and look forward to receiving and acting upon the Ofsted inspectors' report."