Teachers say no to summer snooping
Role won’t be taken on during school holidays
THE SNP’s ‘state snooper’ scheme has plunged into further chaos after teachers warned they will not perform the role during school holidays.
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the country’s largest teaching union, also revealed that members will ditch the role at weekends.
Ministers are already facing a rebellion from health visitors, who fear they will be made scapegoats and sued by angry parents if children are harmed.
Now teachers – the other profession singled out to act as Named Persons through the project – have joined the revolt.
With civil war erupting in the public sector, council chiefs hit out at the EIS for unveiling its stance without holding talks.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has refused to bow to demands to ‘pause’ the roll-out, which is due to take place this August, despite growing opposition.
The SNP wants state guardians to be a single point of contact for children up to the age of 18, to spot early signs of abuse or neglect.
However, the Scottish Daily Mail can reveal that responsibilities could be passed to council workers, who may have little knowledge of their background, for several weeks every summer. Already stretched local authority workers will be expected to take on thousands of additional cases.
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of EIS, said: ‘The EIS is also clear that though the service will continue throughout holiday periods and beyond the hours of the working week, members of local authority staff rather than teachers will fulfil the named person role at these times. Arrangements such as this already operate in relation to child protection matters.’
However, child protection teams focus on vulnerable youngsters, while the Named Person scheme is designed to provide a single point of contact for them all.
At primary school, that is likely to be a head teacher, while secondary school guidance teachers are also expected to perform the role. Last night, a spokesman for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities said: ‘Councils are fully committed to the Named Person scheme.
‘This is a discussion we will need to have with the EIS. Ideally it would have been better if the EIS had tried to have that discussion first.’
Campaigners said the revelation about teachers’ demands made the scheme unworkable.
Lesley Scott, of the No To Named Persons campaign, said: ‘This raises more concerns. It makes a mockery of the idea of a single point of contact.
‘This is no longer a Named Person, who the family know and trust, that is being considered here – it’s any functionary will do to fill the gap.’
She added: ‘The school term does not last all year round. If you take it in percentage terms, a child is away from school more often than they are there.
‘The purpose of this is to intervene early when problems arise. To do that you must have somebody who knows the minutiae of a child’s life.’
A survey of health visitors – who will act as Named Persons until the child is school age – revealed that 52 per cent are opposed, it emerged earlier this month.
THE slickest spin doctors in politics have been tasked with giving the SNP’s muchderided Named Persons plan – which will foist a state snooper on every child in the land – a makeover.
The latest wheeze is to suggest Named Persons will be like avuncular guidance teachers. What utter drivel.
No guidance teacher ever had a writ that allowed them to usurp parental authority and share personal details about children behind the backs of their families.
And now a new headache even the oily kings of spin cannot fix: teachers who are at the forefront of the scheme say they will not operate at weekends or during generous school holidays.
This project staggers from crisis to crisis, yet the SNP dogmatically ploughs on. What will it take before it pauses for thought and gives serious consideration to the honest concerns about this deeply invasive scheme?