A LEAKED document sheds more light on the failures of services designed to improve Bradford's schools.

A key education board is "too big and unwieldy to be effective", while a school improvement service acknowledges that many of its functions require improvement, according to the report.

The document was written by respected academic Professor David Woods, who was commissioned by Bradford Council to examine why progress was not being made in bringing up educational standards.

But despite using nearly £3,000 of public money to fund the work, the Council refused to release Prof Woods' report in full.

The authority said it was an internal document, and instead only made public a five-page summary of his findings.

Now the Telegraph & Argus has seen the full 18-page report, which reveals why the district's Education Improvement Strategic Board, chaired by Council leader David Green, is proving ineffective.

Prof Woods said: "In its desire to be representative of all stake-holders the board is now too big and unwieldy (23 members) to be effective."

The report also reveals that the district's school improvement service has already acknowledged its own shortcomings.

It says that the service grades itself against nine criteria, but that six of these require improvement, one is inadequate, and only two are seen as good.

Usually, those who leak documents ask the press to withhold their identity.

But Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Jeanette Sunderland said she didn't mind one bit being identified as the source of the leak, adding that she was baffled by the authority's efforts to suppress the full report.

She said: "I think it makes it look like they have something to hide, and we have enough problems without secrecy being one of them."

Cllr Sunderland said that apart from some detail being removed, and some language changed - such as a heading called 'Confronting the brutal facts' being changed to simply 'Confronting the facts' - there was little in the full report that hadn't been in the summary.

Bradford Council leader, Councillor David Green, said: "The summary we published is an accurate reflection of the full report - that is not in question.

"This shows there was never any intention to hide anything whatsoever - it simply made sense to release the key headline points in a concise way to make it as accessible as possible."

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