Time to think again on Named Persons

THE Named Person project, which assigns a state snooper to every child from pre-birth to 18, is deeply controversial. A Scottish Daily Mail poll this week found 64 per cent of Scots believe the plan is an ‘unacceptable intrusion’ into family life.

Against this backdrop, the Scottish Conservatives will today use a key Holyrood debate in a bid to secure a pause to allow a review of the scheme.

The SNP has so far dogmatically steamrollered Named Person legislation through, brushing aside concerns that it paves the way for astonishing intrusion by the state into family life.

The potential damage to families as the role of parents is diminished is bad enough, but the Named Person project is centred on a woolly notion of ‘wellbeing’. There is a real risk – as happened with a similar project in the Isle of Man – that social workers could be swamped by trivial issues while serious cases of neglect are missed.

That was thrown into stark relief by the horrific case of Liam Fee. The toddler was murdered by his mother and her partner despite Fife, where he spent his last agonising days, being a test-bed for the Named Person scheme.

Rather than taking the view that any potential problems with the Fife pilot have huge implications for the scheme nationally, the SNP went on the attack. It accused opponents of trying to score political points and Education Secretary John Swinney was reduced to shabby claims that what operated in Fife was somehow not a Named Person scheme ‘in terms of the legislation that parliament has put in place’.

Even former SNP leader Gordon Wilson is aghast. He warns a pause on the legislation is not enough and suggests outright repeal.

Wither Labour in all this? After all, it is on the record as saying it would back the Tory call for a pause. But jaw-droppingly, Kezia Dugdale’s party is set to vote against an interlude. The reasoning is unclear but there are dark mutterings about Tory politicking, which smacks of the same obdurate thinking as the SNP.

All we know of Named Person in action is that it utterly failed Liam Fee when, in that asinine phrase, he ‘dropped off social work radar’. That is the very thing Named Person was intended to prevent, the cornerstone of its creation.

With the public and a slew of childcare experts deeply concerned, with a former SNP leader calling for an entire rethink and with the bitter experience of the Isle of Man to learn from, won’t the Nationalists think again?

To do so would be a principled stance, a practical demonstration that the SNP can do more than talk about a new type of enlightened politics.

With children’s welfare at stake, a pause on Named Persons now would be a sign of maturity and confidence from the government and not the surrender it fears.

Surely child protection is one area where tribalistic politics can be set aside for the greater good?