A car manufacturer is lending an education authority a thousand factory workers to carry out essential improvements in its schools.

Jaguar Cars will pay its employees to do repairs to Liverpool's 200 schools while its factory in Halewood is closed for three months to have new production lines built.

The work in the schools will include painting, decorating and landscaping.

The city's education authority is putting in �200,000 for materials.

Each school will be allocated its own team of workers who will carry out the work during the school summer holidays next year.

Liverpool City Council's leader, Mike Storey, said the Jaguar renovation project was an example of the "ground-breaking" way the council was trying to tackle education in the city.

The initiative - the first on this scale - has been welcomed by the government, which wants more private companies to get involved in state schools.

Off the hook

The plan was announced as the Education Minister Estelle Morris was visiting the city and acknowledging the progress the education authority had made since being severely criticised in a report by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted).

Speaking during a visit to the city's Notre Dame High School, she said private sector consultants appointed by the government had set "important milestones" for the authority, which had been met.

As a result, an immediate threat of at least partial privatisation of Liverpool's education services has been lifted - as it has been also for Leicester and the London borough of Haringey.

But Ms Morris ordered a re-inspection by Ofsted within a year, saying ministers had to be convinced that progress made in Liverpool's schools would be maintained.

'Tough regime'

She said: "The turnaround in the Liverpool education service gives us optimism for the future. But there have been false dawns in Liverpool before.

"That is why I am putting in place a very tough and independent monitoring regime.

"If the recent progress is not maintained over the next 12 months, we will not hesitate to put the education service in Liverpool out to commercial contract.

"We will do whatever we need to do to make sure Liverpool schools get the support they need and deserve."

On Leicester, Ms Morris revealed the findings of a report commissioned from consultants by the government and the city council.

Agency to support schools

It recommended the establishment of a development support agency to help schools ensure they received high quality services, and a new partnership board to drive forward an action plan.

The board is to be chaired by Professor David Hopkins, Dean of Education at Nottingham University.

Consultants for Haringey

Ms Morris also announced that Capita Managed Services had been selected to work with Haringey, in partnership with Bedfordshire education authority and the Westminster Education Consultancy, to advise on how to get "urgent and significant improvements".

Capita and its partners would "advise on the availability of other providers and assess their services", she said.

They would develop specifications for services and draw up bidding documents for possible privatisation.

Ms Morris said: "I am pleased that Haringey is co-operating with us to achieve the improvements we need. The Ofsted report showed significant weakness in the education authority.

Schools and parents deserve better than that. This is an important first step in giving them the support they need."