HAPPY NAMED PERSON’S DAY?

TODAY, we will be celebrating Father’s Day in our usual manner: if this dad is lucky, he might get a longer sleep than normal, before spending much of the day ferrying children from one weekend activity to another.

I hope fellow fathers across the country get some similar token of recognition today for their role in family life.

We are, let’s admit it, a clumsy, flawed species, regularly failing to meet the standards that society demands of us.

But most of us deserve at least one day when our valiant attempts to set a reasonable example to our children, to act as a one-man Uber service, and to stay off the booze until at least 8.30pm, are noted.

And it’s important, too. Just as with Mother’s Day, today is first and foremost a celebration of the most important social institution ever invented: the family.

‘There is,’ the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom declared recently, ‘an inextricable link between the protection of the family and the protection of fundamental freedoms in liberal democracies.’

The judges added: ‘Different upbringings produce different people. The first thing that a totalitarian regime tries to do is to get at the children, to distance them from the subversive, varied influences of their families, and indoctrinate them in their rulers’ view of the world.

‘Within limits, families must be left to bring up their children in their own way.’

It is as fine an endorsement of the importance of families, and their role in curbing the excesses of State control, as you can ever expect to read. I’m sure very few people in Scotland would disagree.

How revealing then, that this quote comes direct from the Supreme Court’s ruling, two summers ago, against the SNP Government’s notorious and hated Named Person law.

That plan, readers will recall, proposed that every child in Scotland be given a registered State guardian.

Typically a teacher or a health visitor, the Named Person would have had an obligation to ensure the wellbeing of those children.

Following an appeal by the No to Named Person (No2NP) campaign, the Supreme Court concluded that this unprecedented invasion of family life, allowing public agencies to share information about children without their parents’ knowledge, breached rights to privacy and a family life under the European Convention of Human Rights.

Thank goodness, it sent the SNP back to think again.

And rightly so. Like the rest of us, I don’t doubt that SNP Ministers and officials care about the protection of vulnerable children. We all know, sadly, that abuse is commonly carried out by family members.

HOWEVER, as the Supreme Court made clear, the Named Person plan massively overstepped an incredibly important principle: it would have allowed confidential information about a young person to be disclosed to a wide range of public authorities without either the child or parents being aware of it.

It therefore completely undermined family life. Society must uphold those rights dearly – because, if we do not, then society will suffer.

For me, the same principle applies to forthcoming plans at the Scottish parliament to ban smacking.

This isn’t about whether you think a child should be smacked or not; it’s about potentially criminalising parents for the way they choose to bring up their children.

The moment we send out the message that parents are not in control, that the State is watching over them, is the moment society begins to break down. So we need to be careful. As the Scottish Mail on Sunday reports today, a non-statutory version of the Named Person scheme is being rolled out across Scotland, as we speak.

The danger is that, even though the Supreme Court has ruled against the statutory plans, they are brought in by stealth nonetheless.

As the No2NP campaign makes clear, parents should know their rights. If a Named Person offers advice or a service to you, you don’t have to accept it. If a Named Person tries to override your wishes, it is they – not you – who may be breaching conventions on human rights.

YOU are not obliged to have a Named Person if you don’t want one – so don’t be bossed around. The current law makes clear that there is no right for private information about you or your family to be shared. The No2NP campaign says parents in Scotland have come to them with stories where confidential medical information about them and their children has been distributed to others – even that inaccurate gossip about their relationships and spending habits has been shared.

You have a right to know whether this information is being shared. It is wrong for the state not to tell you.

But the best course of action would be for the SNP simply to ditch the whole idea and start again from scratch. The arrogant attempt to force through this appalling idea has lost the SNP the confidence of parents. And the attempt to correct the original legislation is doomed.

John Swinney has proposed to introduce a new code of practice to address the concerns about data sharing. Yet the SNP-dominated education committee at the Scottish parliament has ruled that the draft code he has produced is too inadequate even to scrutinise. In other words, parliament has now joined the public in declaring a vote of no confidence in the entire scheme.

The Scottish Conservatives believe the precious resources going towards this flawed plan should instead be spent on those who need it, rather than blanket interference in every family.

We are willing to get round the table to find a fresh solution to protect vulnerable children and families in need.

There never will be a ‘Named Person’s Day’ in the calendar.

That’s because, fundamentally, we all know that it is mothers and fathers who hold the key to a child’s life, not a State guardian.

Families across Scotland get that. MSPs in the Scottish parliament get that. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom gets it, too.

Isn’t it time the SNP Government listened for once?

It would be best if the SNP ditched the whole idea