Puzzling over Alison Sauer's massive, and on the face of it inexplicable, irritation about my blog post on Welsh home education caused me to poke around a little and look at her business interests. I find that she is now running a new incarnation of the old Sauer Consultancy company. Details may be seen here:
http://www.sc-education.co.uk/contact/
The emphasis of this company seems to be flexi-schooling. See this group for a little more insight into Alison’s work in that field:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/flexischooling/message/5
Here are a few recommendations of Alison’s new company;
“Flexischooling has enabled us to develop true
partnerships with the parents. They contribute to the
curriculum and are involved in forward planning for
the school. There is no division between the children
in the playground. In fact, the only difference is that
the fl exischooling children want to fi nish their work
and not be restricted by the bell. I’d say that’s a good
thing.” Simon East, headteacher, Erpingham Primary
School, Norfolk
“Flexischooling has lead to us widening the horizons
for education provision. We even have one high
functioning autistic child on roll who will shortly
have a teaching assistant regularly attending
the home because we can fund it through the
fl exischooling model.” Janette Mountford-Lees,
headteacher, Hollingsclough School, Staffordshire
But hey, it’s not just head teachers who are so keen on Alison Sauer and her company. Here is a ringing endorsement from a crony of Roland Meighan;
‘. Alison is doing amazing work across the country and working in close contact with the DfE‘
Working in close contact with the Department for Education? I bet she is! Readers might recall that a few weeks ago I drew attention to the draft of the new guidelines on home education, drawn up by a group led by Alison Sauer and including Mike Fortune-Wood. I noted that the members of this group were on first name terms with the MP who is currently chair of the Education Committee and had written on the draft various peremptory instructions to civil servants at the Department for Education. Things like;
‘This section needs completing by someone in the DfE with more knowledge than I have of the process’
‘I’m sure you can find someone to do this one Graham!’
Since Alison Sauer is ‘working in close contact with the DfE’, this is not at all surprising. Mike Fortune-Wood’s involvement is a little more curious and slightly suspicious, since for months he flatly denied having anything at all to do with the project. I am interested to find Alison Sauer, Mike Fortune-Wood and an organisation connected with Roland Meighan; all apparently on the best of terms with the Department for Education. I shall have more to say about this soon.
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Simon, you are hilarious! Most people within homeschooling circles have known about this for ages. Alison herself has promoted it. She clearly saw the potential in flexischooling and set about educating others and trying to bring about more awareness. I see no 'new incarnation' of her old company.
ReplyDeleteHer reaction to your post on Welsh HE seemed to me to be one of correcting wrong assumptions by presenting accurate information. I suspect that as she appears to be someone who is trying to to build bridges between home educators and LAs, what she was really irritated with was the inaccuracy and the hype with which your blog post was written.
I am hoping you will return to the subject of Home Educating your daughter soon, I really did enjoy your posts on this.
'Most people within homeschooling circles have known about this for ages.'
ReplyDeleteI am not sure about 'most'. Some have been aware of this; others have not.
'I see no 'new incarnation' of her old company'
The company was formerly trading as Suaer Consultancy and is now trading under the name of SC Education.
'I suspect that as she appears to be someone who is trying to to build bridges between home educators and LAs'
I am all in favour of people bilding bridges with local authorities. What I am a little more dubious about is somebody, 'in close contact with the DfE' who apparently has the authority to issue instructions to civil servants. This looks to me like a person who wishes to both run with the fox and also hunt with the hounds! Those guidelines that were nearly foisted upon both home edcuators and local authorities would have been pretty awful. I like to keep an eye on these things.
Apropos od my comment about Alison wishing to run with the fox and hunt with the hounds, here is her own description of herself:
ReplyDelete'Born in Yorkshire and educated in the North of England, Alison Sauer has worked for herself providing training and consultancy services to business, local authorities, educators and charities for over 20 years.
Alison is a director of The Sauer Consultancy Limited, a company which has been providing training and consultancy in home education to local authorities for more than eight years.
She has been involved in a number of consultations on home education including the consultations for the Scottish Guidance on Home Education, Children Missing from Education and most recently, the Badman Review and its subsequent analysis by the House of Commons Education Select Committee. In addition, she has advised and participated in a number of home education research projects and studies.
Alison is a member of the Centre for Personalised Education Trust (CPE-PEN), a think-tank organisation whose members include academics and teachers from both state and private schools. Working alongside CPE-PEN, one of Alison's current projects aims to improve the availability of flexischooling in state schools. This project involves networking with flexischooling headteachers, parents and local authorities, raising awareness of flexischooling, and analysing the flexischooling schemes currently operating.
In the past, she has represented voluntary organisations and been called upon as a home education expert for newspapers, radio and television. She has also written for ACE (Advisory Centre for Education) on home education issues.
Alison is a passionate believer in good organisation, communication and networking and endeavours through offering professional development workshops and courses to improve the skills of many organisations in both the public and the private sector.'
What's missing from this profile? Oh, wait a moment! The fact that she is actually a home educator herself. The reason this is left out is fairly obvious. It is because she is afraid that this would put off teachers and local authorities. My own identity as home edcuator is an integral part of my character and even when I wrote an academic book on the subject of home education, I felt that I had to mention that I was myself a home educator. It might have been a little misleading otherwise!
Great news, this could help lots of children and their families tailor their education more closely to their needs. Well done Alison! And thanks for the update Simon, I've not been following HE so much recently and had missed that one. I'm sometimes asked about flexischooling so I'll know where to send them for information now.
ReplyDelete'Great news, this could help lots of children and their families tailor their education more closely to their needs'
ReplyDeleteIt is not really necessary to employ a company for this! One of my daughter's was flexi-schooled and all we did was arrange the matter with the school in an amicable fashion.
True, and I've spoken to at least one other person who had similar success. But I've spoken to several who have tried and failed to convince their local school that it could work. The more publicity the successful examples gain, especially positive reviews from head teachers, the better.
Delete'Her reaction to your post on Welsh HE seemed to me to be one of correcting wrong assumptions by presenting accurate information. I suspect that as she appears to be someone who is trying to to build bridges between home educators and LAs, what she was really irritated with was the inaccuracy and the hype with which your blog post was written.'
ReplyDeleteWell I saw this as providing a useful piece of information for home educators. Even Fiona Nicholson did not know about it and has now put it as a stop press on her website. I was just keeping people in touch with what was going on and I can't really see why Alison Sauer got so annoyed about that.
Oooh, look! Now we begin to understand why the Chair of the Education Committee is addressed by his first name in the notes on the proposed guidelines which I mention above;
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sc-education.co.uk/flexischooling-conference/
Great! More good news! You're a mine of information today, Simon.
DeleteI'm wondering what expertise Lord Lucas has with flexi or any other schooling?
DeleteProbably more than most of the MPs who have voted through the various Education Acts over the years.
Delete"Nearly foisted"? Offered and declined would be less emotive and more accurate. No, they weren't great, but we were always told that we would get our say, and we did. And we said no.
ReplyDeleteI knew that Alison was working on flexi. Didn't everyone? Why are you trying to make out that it's a bad thing to be on good terms with the DfE?
What a silly post.
Why does Alison's irritation puzzle you? You were wrong. Wales is not introducing registration, merely trying to get a bill passed which would introduce registration.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you describe her irritation as "massive"? It didn't look massive to me. It looked as if she was correcting yet another inaccuracy on your part. That, in itself, can be slightly irritating, but I think you're "massively" over-estimating how much anyone actually cares about what you think.
' Offered and declined would be less emotive and more accurate. No, they weren't great, but we were always told that we would get our say, and we did. And we said no.'
ReplyDeleteOK, I might have missed something here. When were the new guidelines offered and by whom were they declined? To whom were they offered? When were other home edcuators given their say? Who was it that said 'no'? I have obviously missed all this! Could you give a little more detail for those of us who thought that the things gradually came to light by various means and that the fuss that followed caused Alison and Graham to drop the whole idea quietly. Who offered them? When was this done?
'Why are you trying to make out that it's a bad thing to be on good terms with the DfE?'
I didn't say, nor do I think, that it is a bad thing to be on good terms with the DfE. I find it a little alarming though when the director or a commercial company who has not been elected to represent anybody is suddenly in a position to issue instructions to civil servants at the Department for Education. This smells bad. If readers heard that I was telling staff at the DfE what they should be doing, I think that eyebrows would be raised! Who invited Sauer Consultancy to draw up the guidelines and by what authority was the company given the power to tell civil servants to work on them?
'Why do you describe her irritation as "massive"?'
Because I posted thirty six words and Alison responded with over seven hundred. Her response was pretty emotive as well; this was clearly something about which she cared.
' I think you're "massively" over-estimating how much anyone actually cares about what you think.'
I have no idea how much anybody cares about what I think; nor does it matter to me. This is a personal blog, where I express my own views about things. Nobody need come here and read those views unless they wish to. If you don't care what I think surely the easiest thing would be for you not to come on here?
"'Why do you describe her irritation as "massive"?'
ReplyDeleteBecause I posted thirty six words and Alison responded with over seven hundred."
Oh I see. You measure emotion by word count. You must be very emotional about Alison yourself.
'Why are you trying to make out that it's a bad thing to be on good terms with the DfE?'
ReplyDeleteJust to make things perfectly clear, I think it a good thing for home educators to get on well with their local authority and also to maintain good relations with the Department for Education. What I was raising questions about was the propriety of a commercial venture becoming involved in a matter which could affect the legal situation of an activity undertaken by tens of thousands of people in this country. When we read a note to an MP that says, ‘This section needs completing by someone in the DfE with more knowledge than I have of the process’, then it looks as though the director of a company is instructing civil servants to help with that company’s work. Here are few links about the company concerned:
http://www.sauer-consultancy.com/
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/ralph-sauer/14/149/8a7
http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-sauer-consultancy-limited
"When we read a note to an MP that says, ‘This section needs completing by someone in the DfE with more knowledge than I have of the process’, then it looks as though the director of a company is instructing civil servants to help with that company’s work."
DeleteSo do you think they were commissioned to carry out this work and received payment? If not, it's more a case of the civil servants getting free help with a document that they have usually produced in the past. If you think they were paid, do you have any evidence?
'So do you think they were commissioned to carry out this work and received payment? If not, it's more a case of the civil servants getting free help with a document that they have usually produced in the past. If you think they were paid, do you have any evidence?'
ReplyDeleteAn interesting question,although I said nothing at all about payment. The director of a company which, according to its website, provides: Project Management,
Export and Cultural Consultancy,
Tenders and Contract Management,
Training in Tenders and Contract Management and various other services, was commissioned in circumstances which remain obscure, to draw up some guidelines relating to home education. I have no idea if money exchanged hands, nor of the nature of the commission. Perhaps this work was put out to tender, possibly the company was undertaking it for nothing; although that would be very unusual.
As for the, 'civil servants getting free help with a document', it looked quite the other way round, at least judging by all that I have seen. How happy would you feel anyway about statutory guidelines in other areas, industry or manufacturing say, being produced by voluntary workers and then made binding upon thousands of people? It would be an odd way of going about the matter, to say the very least.
Who wrote the current guidelines?
ReplyDeleteDear Jane, are you sure your name isn't Alison?
ReplyDelete'Dear Jane, are you sure your name isn't Alison?'
ReplyDeleteYes, the same thought had crossed my mind!
'Who wrote the current guidelines?'
ReplyDeleteThe current guidelines, which were published on November 29th 2007 are Crown Copyright. This, combined with the fact that no specific authors are mentioned, makes it very likely that they were produced by civil servants working for the Department for Children, Schools and Families. It is worth bearing in mind that before these guidelines were written, a public consultation was held, which received almost a thousand submissions. Nothing of this sort preceeded the production of the guidelines associated with Sauer Consultancy and that alone makes the case very different. Before the current guidelines were produced, everybody was told what was going on and given a chance to offer their opinions. It was a transparent and open process. Before the guidelines produced by Alison Sauer's company were written, only a tiny handful of individuals were asked for their views; Mike Fortune-Wood, Tania Berlow, Rainbow-Leaf Lovejoy, Kelly Green and so on.
I am sorry if nobody else can see that this makes the whole thing a very differnet kettle of fish. I am also sorry if others are unable to see that allowing a commercial organisation to become involved in this business without putting it out to tender was a very dubious undertaking. The emails being exchanged between Alison, Jacqui, Tania and Graham lead me to suppose that the thing was essentially a private arrangement between Alison Sauer and Graham Stuart, which makes it all the more surprising to see civil servants being directed to help with the work.
Is that what you think? Wrong on every count.
ReplyDelete" I am also sorry if others are unable to see that allowing a commercial organisation to become involved in this business without putting it out to tender was a very dubious undertaking."
ReplyDeleteSurely this would only be an issue if they were being paid by taxpayers? And I would much rather that the first draft of guidelines to be used for a public consultation be produced by people who have home educated rather than random civil servants. We have no reason to believe that the consultation mentioned at the time would not have happened. As it turned out, opposition from the majority at the time was sufficient to end the project, so home educators ultimately had the final say over the guidelines.
"It is worth bearing in mind that before these guidelines were written, a public consultation was held, which received almost a thousand submissions."
ReplyDeleteIt is worth bearing in mind that someone had to produce the draft guidelines that were put out for that public consultation. The guidelines being produced last year were the equivalent of these, not the final product.
'Is that what you think? Wrong on every count.'
ReplyDeleteI have already invited you to explain the matter here. For example, you said that the guidelines produced by Sauer Consultancy were, 'Offered and declined ... we were always told that we would get our say, and we did. And we said no.' Could you tell us who offered them, to whom they were offered and when they were declined? Who said 'no'? Also, when we 'got our say'?
I am happy for you to set me straight publicly on any aspect of the thing, Jane. You say that I am wrong on every count of the comment which I posted above. Do you mean that the current guidelines were not published on November 29th, 2007, following a public consultation? Or are you suggesting that Rainbow-Leaf Lovejoy and the others were not involved in the guidelines that Alison was working on? Please tell us all about this. I might just mention though that I do have a bunch of emails which were forwarded to me by one of the people involved and that if what you tell us does not tie in with these, I shall ask you to explain the discrepancy.
'And I would much rather that the first draft of guidelines to be used for a public consultation be produced by people who have home educated rather than random civil servants. We have no reason to believe that the consultation mentioned at the time would not have happened. As it turned out, opposition from the majority at the time was sufficient to end the project, so home educators ultimately had the final say over the guidelines.'
ReplyDeleteWe have no idea what the majority thought about the guidelines. They were produced in secret and only came to light because somebody leaked them. What was the nature of the public consultation which was planned? Planned by whom? If you know about this, please tell us. If the guidelines were good, then I don't see why they should not have been presented openly and opinions asked about them.
"We have no idea what the majority thought about the guidelines."
DeleteMany people, including you, made their feelings clear about the very idea of new guidelines before even seeing them. The strength of feeling was such that it became clear to anyone following the issue at the time that it would have been pointless to attempt to take them further.
"They were produced in secret and only came to light because somebody leaked them."
The exact contents maybe, but at least one member of the group discussed their existence and attempted to gather input. It was also made clear that anyone could ask to join the group and contribute to the draft. Did anyone actually ask and meet a refusal?
"What was the nature of the public consultation which was planned? Planned by whom?"
It was mentioned at the time that the guidelines would be put out for the usual public consultation.
"If the guidelines were good, then I don't see why they should not have been presented openly and opinions asked about them."
The guidelines never reached that point because of the outcry against them. Before any consultation takes place there must be some kind of document put forward to be consulted upon. It would be unmanageable to say, 'hey, wet think we want some new guidelines, what do you think they should say?', and then produce the guidelines from the results.
The equivalent document for the previous consultation was produced by civil servants 'in secret', yet there was no outcry about that at the time. I'm struggling to see why people would object to the same document being produced by a group of home educators instead.
'The equivalent document for the previous consultation was produced by civil servants 'in secret''
ReplyDeleteWell no, it wan't. The York Consulting study which was commissioned in 2006 and the guidelines were all discussed openly. True, nobody saw the guidelines until they had been written, but there was no attempt to conceal the fact that it was happening. This was a very different state of affairs when Alison Sauer was drawing up the most recent guidelines.
'It was also made clear that anyone could ask to join the group and contribute to the draft. Did anyone actually ask and meet a refusal?'
It was not made clear that anybody could ask to join the group, because it was denied that there was a group at all. When Alison Sauer dropped off some of the lists for a while, it was suspected that she was involved, but she always refused to confirm it. Some people emailed her asking about the guidelines and their questions were ignored. Even more alarmingly, some people contacted Graham Stuart by email asking what was going on and he passed their details on to Alison!
Those who were approached by Alison and who helped with the guidelines, people like Jacqui Cox and so on, were actually sworn to secrecy. Not only were they not to talk about the thing to others, they were not to tell anybody the names of anybody else that they found out to be working on the guidelines. It was run like a terrorist cell!
"Well no, it wan't. The York Consulting study which was commissioned in 2006 and the guidelines were all discussed openly. True, nobody saw the guidelines until they had been written, but there was no attempt to conceal the fact that it was happening."
ReplyDeleteHave you forgotten that most home educators were originally excluded from the guidelines consultation, that the consultation was only opened up after a complaint was made against the DfES to the Better Regulation Executive for excluding home educators and failing to follow the code of practice? The complaint also included the failure of the DfES to involve stakeholders early in the process (it began in early 2005).
"It was not made clear that anybody could ask to join the group, because it was denied that there was a group at all."
Funny, because I'm sure I remember reading many messages from Tania that repeatedly made this point.
'Funny, because I'm sure I remember reading many messages from Tania that repeatedly made this point.'
ReplyDeleteYes, Tania Berlow did break ranks, but this was not with Alison Sauer's approval. The Somerset axis of Tania Berlow, Ali Edgeley and Jacqui Cox broke up with some fairly bitter recriminations being made. Alison Sauer had feared all along that Tania could not be trusted to keep a secret and had some strong things to say about Tania's invitation for everybody to become involved. Like everybody else, Tania had been sworn to secrecy and Alison said that she felt betrayed when Tania began shooting her mouth off.
You seem partial to being in on secrets yourself. You claimed knowledge of this ages ago!
DeleteAppears that far from being a spokesperson for HE, Alison has found an opportunity to feather her own nest.
ReplyDeleteWhat would be considered in any other arena, as a "conflict of interest"!
It's a good story, but not much of it is true.
ReplyDelete'It's a good story, but not much of it is true'
ReplyDeleteAs I have said before Jane, why not tell us the truth? By all means denounce me as a liar; only be little more specific. What do you claim that I have said which is not true? By the way, I am still waiting to hear about the time that the guidelines drawn up by Sauer Consultancy were 'offered and declined'. Nobody else remembers this happening, but if it did then the least that you could do would be to give some details; dates and so on would do to begin with.
'You seem partial to being in on secrets yourself. You claimed knowledge of this ages ago!'
ReplyDeleteI hardly think any of this is secret any more! One of the people coommenting on this thread had her pregnancy annnounced on here at an eary stage by Jacqui Cox. Do you actually know Tania Berlow? I really don't think that Alison Sauer could have been firing on all cylinders the day that she enlisted Tania's help and hoped to keep the enterprise a secret!
Really? So the series of secret emails you have copies of have been published online or discussed in detail? A link would be appreciated!
Delete"As I have said before Jane, why not tell us the truth? By all means denounce me as a liar; only be little more specific."
ReplyDeleteSee anon above at 12.22.
Methinks the bloke doth protest too much.
ReplyDeleteHaving looked for the photos you quoted, I can certainly see why you'd have a crush on Alison Sauer, who wouldn't?
However, didn't you learn in the school yard that you do have to break rank with your mates, and actually walk across the yard to ask her out? Scrawling graffitto on the toilet wall only goes so far. True, you have now told the entire play ground your intentions, but it gets boring, the constant fixation, the need to put down the object of your affection with the battle cry of 'Alison Sauer smells...and she has nits.'
You really need to move on. Stalemate is kinda stale, mate.
Have you ever considered writing an ebook or guest authoring on
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