The privatisation of Bradford's education services moved a step closer today with the announcement of a shortlist of contenders for the contract.

Bradford Council has selected four of the five organisations from the Government's approved list of education contractors that applied as potential partners in its bid to raise standards in the district's schools.

But one of them has already been criticised by an education watchdog for its work with another local education authority.

The late bid from public service union Unison failed and none of the approved local education authorities have made it onto the list. The contractors are:

l Capita Business Limited with sub-contractors including the Local Government Association and the Improvement and Development Agency

l Ensign - a consortium including Group 4 and the Tribal Group

l Nord Anglia in a consortium with Amey. Nord Anglia has been criticised as not improving education quickly enough in Hackney, London by Ofsted.

l Serco-QAA - a partnership between Serco and QAA Education Consultants

Bradford Council's executive member for education, Councillor David Ward, said: "This is a key development in moving forward the future management of education services to schools across the Bradford district.

"We are very pleased at the calibre of the initial bidders and will now be working closely with other education stakeholders to ensure that we select the company which will best meet the needs of our schools.

"We will be consulting all our partners and inviting staff, elected members, head teachers and governors to meet each of the shortlisted organisations before a final decision is made about who should be the strategic partner for education."

Consultants Pricewaterhouse Coopers recommended that the council appoint a "strategic partner" to run the majority of its education services.

The contract will be one of the largest and most complex ever to be awarded in education. But councillors have warned that they will only appoint a partner if they are satisfied that it can meet the full specification.

Invitations to enter negotiations with the council and the Department for Education are expected to be issued to the four bidders by January 15 - a month behind the timetable originally laid out by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

The contract is due to be awarded in April with the winner taking over by the end of July.