Swailes and Bradbury claim that the Department for Education (DfE) blocked them from speaking at the launch of a DfE Stronger Practice Hub in March.
The pair, who edited Early Childhood Theories Today, which this week was shortlisted for the Nursery World professional book award, say that the multi-academy trust organising the conference said they were ‘unsuitable’ experts and considered cancelling the event entirely.
The DfE eventually agreed Swailes and Bradbury could appear via Zoom. However, the multi-academy trust said they couldn’t make delegates give up their weekend to attend the conference to watch a screen.
According to Swailes and Bradbury after getting legal advice, they were allowed to speak in person.
Swailes then filed a subject access request (SAR), which forced the DfE to release any emails or documents mentioning her name. A SAR is a verbal or written request under the Data Protection Act asking for copies of personal data and other information an organisation holds about you.
She claims that the file flagged tweets in which she was critical of Ofsted and noted occasions when she ‘liked’ tweets promoting Birth to 5 Matters. One email calls her a ‘long time critic’ of the Government’s early years policy.
In September, Swailes tweeted, ‘What amuses me about the whole SAR story is that @AaronTeamEC and I were due to speak for 2 days to around 120 people a day and someone decided we were "unsuitable" and tried to cancel us at the last minute. They expected us to go quietly and just accept this.’
In an additional tweet she said, ‘If only [Redacted] hadn’t said we were unsuitable to speak at the SPH event we would never have found out about all this surveillance. Thanks [Redacted] – nice one!
Nursery World understands that other early years/education experts have been also told they are 'unsuitable' for DfE events, allegedly Dr Mine Conkbayir.
Conkbayir said, 'Having given my time and expertise to the Department for Education (DfE) at no cost concerning their early years education recovery programme, soon after, I found out from the event organisers where I was due to give the keynote on self-regulation in the early years, that the DfE would not give the event organisers any funding to pay me. It was because I had been critical of DfE policies.
'Due to fiercely defending my professional integrity, the DfE relented a little, stating that I could have ‘"strictly 30 minutes and online only with all my slides scrutinised by DfE staff beforehand’".
'I find it despicable that the DfE continues to justify - and get away with their shameless bullying and intimidation tactics. When the event organisers told the DfE that I would expose them, the DfE’s response was that ''this is a risk they are willing to take'’.
'The DfE’s treatment of me has left me feeling shocked, disrespected and worried about my professional reputation and career.'
Other education experts have also put in subject access requests, including early years expert Sue Cowley, Iain Cushing – a senior lecturer in linguistics and Dr Pam Jarvis – a chartered psychologist and qualified teacher.
The DfE has been contacted for a response.