Government should protect vulnerable children, not monitor family life of all

I am writing to call for the Named Persons scheme to be abandoned. Anyone who has watched the tortuous progress of the Scottish Government’s attempts to introduce this deeply flawed scheme must despair at the costs, complexity, lack of openness and lack of proper scrutiny. In themselves, these are reasons to abandon it.

My opposition to the proposed scheme is exactly the concern expressed by the Supreme Court. Parents (and grandparents, of whom I am one) have fundamental rights to access to data held about them and fundamental rights to be the prime holders of responsibility for their children.

Obviously, in situations where parents do not behave responsibly in the eyes of the law we must have means of ensuring that the rights of their children can override these rights, but we already have such powers with existing legislation, and the Police service is content that the existing powers are adequate.

The focus of the Scottish Government should be on the protection of these vulnerable children. It should not be involved in monitoring the family life of the vast majority of the population.

That relevant data could be shared by government agencies without the knowledge of parents is a breach of parental rights. Such monitoring would, in any case, be carried out by teachers and social workers, who lack the time to carry out the task in a meaningful way because they already have too many other tasks to perform.

I am concerned that the Government is putting too large a burden on such named people, with the result that the lack of data sharing and openness with parents becomes even more dangerous.

SUSAN A SHAW Old Doune Road, Dunblane

I am a mother of a five-yearold and work in the dental industry. I am very well aware of the horrors that can happen to children but it’s time for this deeply unpopular scheme to be dropped. The scheme can’t work without having parents’ confidence, and that’s gone.

Here are just some of the points that are a huge issue. 1) Lawyers admitted that the scheme was so complicated that Named Persons would need to have them on speed dial.

2) If the scheme was “not mandatory”, as the First Minister claims, why is the Government having so much trouble legislating for it?

3) The Supreme Court struck down the data-sharing aspects at the heart of the scheme, deeming them a breach of human rights.

4) If the scheme was a single point of contact for parents then there would be no problem, but it’s not. It’s a single point of contact about parents.

This is a hugely flawed design! Yes there needs to be protection for children in this very horrible world, where so much is ignored and terrible things can be hidden in plain view, but this scheme is a farce.

N HARRISON Broadshade Drive, Westhill

As a father of three, and soon to be grandfather, I feel deeply angry about the Named Persons Scheme. Leave parenting to parents who make a good job of it and use your resources to support those who can’t

BRIAN RENNIE Upper Loaning , Alloway, Ayr