A VICTORY FOR EVERY FAMILY IN SCOTLAND
SNP finally forced to axe Stalinist plan to appoint state guardian for every child after six-year Mail campaign
PLANS to force a state guardian on every child in Scotland were scrapped yesterday after a humiliating U-turn by the SNP.
Bowing to immense pressure from parents, teachers and social workers, the Scottish Government finally ditched its hated Named Person scheme.
In a victory for every family in Scotland – and a six-year campaign by this newspaper – the highly intrusive ‘state snooper’ policy was unceremoniously dumped by John Swinney.
In what was described as ‘the mother and father of all U-turns’, the underfire Education Secretary admitted it was not possible to resolve legal concerns about the scheme.
But he refused to apologise to parents who have for years battled the introduction of a policy described as ‘Stasi-like’ by opponents.
It comes more than three years after the UK’s highest court ruled the Named Person proposal unlawful.
Under the ‘illiberal’ scheme, officials would have been free to share private information given in confidence with social workers and police without parents’ consent, sparking concerns about
an unprecedented infringement on family life. Last night, Simon Calvert, of the No to Named Persons pressure group, said: ‘I say to the Education Secretary that he has done the right thing and many people will appreciate that.
‘But I also say to him that I think he still owes an apology to families for insisting on still trying to get legislation through that breached their human rights, and he has a big job of work to do to unpick all of the legally inaccurate training that his Government has been giving to officials all across Scotland for years.’
Mr Swinney yesterday told MSPs that the elements of a 2014 Act which allowed the Named Person scheme to come into force will be repealed, while new legislation which had attempted to overcome the Supreme Court’s ruling will be dropped.
It is the second major U-turn by Mr Swinney this year, after he scrapped his flagship Education Bill in June.
Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: ‘When the Cabinet Secretary dropped his Education Bill I called it the mother of all ministerial climbdowns but he has outdone himself today by losing two Bills: one dropped, one repealed.
‘This must be the mother and father of humiliating U-turns.’
Taxpayers were left with an £800,000 legal bill as a result of the Scottish Government’s failed defence of the Named Person scheme in the Supreme Court.
Four charities and three i ndividuals launched a judicial review at the Court of Session in Edinburgh and a subsequent appeal, both of which failed, paving the way for a Supreme Court hearing in 2016.
The judges said: ‘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.’
Scottish Conservative interim leader Jackson Carlaw said: ‘Parents, teachers and lawyers all told the SNP that this policy was both universally unpopular and unworkable.
‘The expert panel the SNP set up told them that this policy was not “the right thing to do”.
‘The SNP’s response at all times was to put their fingers in their ears and hurl abuse at those who stood against it. Now they are dumping it. What a total waste of time and money.’
The Education Secretary had appointed a panel of experts to develop a statutory code of practice for information- sharing in order to address the Supreme Court’s concerns.
But a report published yesterday concluded that it was ‘not possible’ to produce a code that everyone could understand.
It is understood a key problem was that teachers and other public sector workers would need to have ‘legal departments on speed dial’.
In a ministerial statement at Holyrood yesterday, Mr Swinney said: ‘The mandatory Named Person scheme for every child, underpinned by law, will now not happen. We will withdraw our Bill and repeal the relevant legislation.
‘ Instead, existing voluntary schemes that provide a point of contact for support will continue under current legal powers, where councils and health boards wish to provide them and parents wish to use them.’
A Scottish Government source said the decision was made because ‘if you’re ripping a plaster off, you’re better to rip it all off at once’. But Scottish Conservative education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘This parliament knows only too well that I have held very strong views on the Named Person policy from the very beginning.
‘I do not believe any tears will be shed this afternoon by parents, teachers, health and social care professionals, by campaigners and, of course, by the public, who have persistently told the SNP that this was one of the most deeply unpopular, illiberal and unworkable policies in modern times.’
When asked if he would apologise to frontline professionals for the ‘endless bureaucracy and anxiety’ about their legal responsibilities, to councils which have faced significant costs and to families for the ‘upset this policy has caused for the last five years’, Mr Swinney said: ‘I think it’s really important that the Government’s intention is to put in place measures that will support and enhance the wellbeing
‘What a total waste of time and money’
of children in our society. I’ll not apologise for trying to find the best way to try to do that.’
After being asked by Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton about the costs to taxpayers of the policy, Mr Swinney said: ‘The Government has faced legal costs in relation to the defence of this legislation at the Outer and Inner House of the Court of Session and also in the Supreme Court.
‘I think it is a quite reasonable position for the Government to commission legal costs to protect legislation, as has been agreed by this parliament.
‘We have incurred relatively modest costs in the development panel – less t han £ 10,000 – for the work that they have done.
‘ They have spent a huge amount of time on this effort and their time has been given voluntarily.’
IT is hard to imagine a more appallingly intrusive example of state interference in family life than Named Person.
This abomination was first unveiled six years ago and from the very start there were warnings it would go badly wrong.
These went unheeded by a Government which was unwilling or unable to accept it had made a mistake – and ploughed ahead with the plan.
Perhaps the most disturbing facet of this costly farce was the deep disconnect it revealed between ministers and parents.
Entirely legitimate concerns about the usurpation of parental ri ghts were dismissed as critics were marginalised, or even ridiculed. Humza Yousaf, then Europe minister, said in 2016 that the critics of the state guardian scheme were putting children’s lives at risk. But a 2016 poll showed nearly two- thirds of Scots considered it an ‘unacceptable intrusion’.
This debacle is instructive because it demonstrates yet again not only the SNP’s arrogance, but also its legislative incompetence. Supreme Court judges f ound Named Person was unlawful, sparking an SNP spin operation that sought to minimise a series of utterly damning conclusions.
But the Government insisted on clinging to the wreckage for another three years, wasting precious time and taxpayers’ money. John Swinney claimed toddler Liam Fee – tortured and killed by his mother and her civil partner – ‘did not have a Named Person in terms of the legislation that parliament has put in place’.
But an inquiry later found Liam was indeed the subject of an early Named Person scheme, and even stated this may have ‘contributed to confusion’ as to who was co-ordinating care for him.
The Named Person shambles is one of Holyrood’s most shameful chapters, but the real casualty is parental faith in our blundering law-makers – and it is unlikely ever to be fully restored.