BBC Sunday Politics Scotland: Named Person debate

The debate considers the proposal that every Scot under 18 is to be designated a person to follow their wellbeing throughout their childhood. That person will not be the child`s parent.

It may be a health visitor who will now have a dual role because the new legislation will mean that they will have a statutory duty to monitor the wellbeing of children in their care. What happens when trust is broken between the health visitor and a parent is not considered. Some parents fear a conflict of interest and the undermining of their parental rights.

Children 1st views the named person as a harmless coordinator of information which already exists. This is a bit disingenuous. The named person will be looking out for and collecting information based on the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators which goes way beyond the current child protection legislation as set out in the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

A sledgehammer to crack a nut?. Making the haystack bigger so that it is more difficult to find the needle? Aren`t vulnerable children going to be lost in the morass? Common sense says yes.

The presenter reminds the Minister for Children and Young People, Aileen Campbell, that there will be a judicial review next month and the Christian Institute has asked her to delay the implementation of the `named person` bit of the new legislation until the matter has been decided.. He also raises the issue of rights. A named person, without the consent of a parent, can access the medical records of a child, for instance. (In fact, they can access the medical records of parents too if in their judgement there is a concern. Notice there is no requirement for evidence.)

"It`s a bit East German isn`t it?" suggests the presenter.

Aileen Campbell confidently bats these concerns aside. She claims parents have been widely consulted.

No they haven`t.

Here are the consultation responses - very few individual responses, but you`ve guessed it, Children 1st are there. This kind of collaboration - with a few tokenistic oppositional groups thrown in - is called participatory democracy - a useful way of side-stepping the electorate when the government wishes to push through an unpopular policy.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/10/5874/downloads#res406420