The national director for Sure Start was in Bradford yesterday for a conference focusing on services for children under five.

Naomi Eisenstadt - director for Sure Start, Extended Schools and Families Group at the Department for Education and Skills - was speaking at the conference about the Government's national agenda.

The conference at The Midland Hotel was attended by more than 200 professionals in social care, health or education and service users.

"Bradford is a leader in delivering Sure Start programmes and is doing very well," Ms Eisenstadt said.

"There is still a long way to go and part of today's conference was about the way forward for the programme and how to get there."

She highlighted a Sure Start programme in Barkerend Road as being innovative and inspiring.

"The project set up the opportunity for women to shadow professionals in their work to give them an idea of what that job was like," she said.

"The project was even ahead of what the Government was doing."

She said there were many other programmes in Bradford which were also worthy of praise.

Kal Nawaz, joint services manager for the Bradford Early Years Service, said she thought the city's success was based on its ability to work well with the community.

"We have been able to engage with communities that historically people have described as hard to reach," she said.

"A lot of the projects have helped to reinforce community spirit."

The conference also looked at how the successes of the Sure Start programme could be extended to the district's children centres where under fives and their families can access a whole range of facilities under one roof.

The Council's Early Years and Childcare Service aims to have established 18 centres across the district by September 2006 and a further 15 by March 2008.

Robin Naylor, head of Bradford's Early Years and Childcare Service, opened the conference.

Workshop topics included support available for families and how to integrate teachers into children centres.