A plan to set up a job agency run by and for disabled people has been given a boost by the Employment Service.

Three major Bradford employers, Abbey National, Bradford NHS Health Trust and the Bradford Council, have teamed up with the Asian Disability Network to submit the bid to the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE).

The project, which will be called Disability@Work, has been shortlisted as one of the Government's preferred bidders for money and will find out later this year if it is to be given a grant.

Pravin Patel, Abbey National's development manager for partnership projects, said: "This is a great scheme because it will be run by disabled people who know best what needs to be done for them.

"It will also do a lot for Asian disabled people, who suffer not only because of their ethnicity but also their disability.

"Even before it places anyone in a job it will be a success because the company will employ about six people."

The coalition is hoping to get three years' funding from the New Deal for Disabled People cash pot which is due to decide on the final contracts by the end of September.

Mr Patel added: "I understand that they were particularly pleased with the ethnicity part of our project which fits into their aims."

A spokesman for the Employment Service, which will jointly decide the recipients along with the Department of Social Services and the Benefits Agency, said being chosen as a preferred bidder was no guarantee of final success.

She said: "We are in post tender negotiations with the preferred bidders and we are hoping that the first of the contracts will be tended out around the beginning of July.

"We are hoping that by the end of September the contracts will have been decided and work can begin.

"We want to give money to as many parts of the country as possible."