SNP spy plan may land us in court, say teachers
TEACHERS and social workers fear they could be prosecuted or held ‘personally liable’ over information sharing under the SNP’s controversial Named Person scheme.
The state snooper plans faced further criticism yesterday as educators admitted they feel ‘very vulnerable and wary’ about proposed changes to the legislation.
John Swinney has been forced to overhaul the initiative after it was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. But his attempts to save the policy have raised concerns among teachers, health visitors, social workers and lawyers.
Under the scheme, a named person would be expected to decide whether or not to share information about children without consent.
Yesterday, Jenni Brown, principal teacher of pupil support for Dumfries and Galloway Council, told Holyrood’s education committee that staff felt ‘very vulnerable’ about such decisions, adding there ‘was concern about being personally liable’ if something went wrong.
As part of changes to the Named Person plans, Mr Swinney has revealed a code of practice will be drawn up – outside of legislation.
Mrs Brown told MSPs such a code should not leave teachers open to ‘legal retribution’.
She said: ‘What I would want is something that is very straightforward, that is backing up professional judgment, which I think most of the time is very sound and is based on putting the child at the centre. And to make sure that a teacher is not being exposed to legal retribu- tion in any way.’ She added: ‘Teachers are very busy... this is an additional workload.
‘If [the code is] to help named persons, if it’s to support their decisions, then it has to be something that is straightforward, quick flow chart-type information, otherwise staff will not use it. They won’t have the time to use it.’
Jackie Niccolls, of the Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, told MSPs staff needed ‘robust guidance’ on what information they could share, and reassurances that they would not be personally liable if they shared or did not share information.
Andrew Keir, of North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said the Named Person scheme was a ‘fantastic idea’ but warned against an ‘overly legalistic’ code of practice.
Scottish Tory education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘These are serious concerns presented by practitioners on the front line... [they] do not know where they stand and there is no scope for full parliamentary scrutiny of the code of practice, which is supposed to determine how the Named Person policy operates. A responsible government would do the decent thing and drop these plans now.’
The Scottish Association of Social Workers this week branded the Named Person scheme ‘toxic’ and also called for it to be scrapped.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The proposals in the Bill will support professional judgment and will increase the capability of senior teachers to work in partnership with families and others to provide children with the right help at the right time.
‘We will provide full support to all those involved in implementing this legislation.
‘This will include engaging widely on the proposed code of practice to ensure it supports teachers and others.’