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Charities centre stage as named person plan is revived

This news post is over 7 years old
 

​Named person WILL become law - a year later than planned, says Swinney

The Scottish Government will begin a period of “intense engagement” with charities and others as it attempts to get its named person legislation back on track.

Plans to appoint a state guardian for every child were derailed last month when the UK’s highest court announced that parts of the proposed legislation were not compatible with human rights laws.

An introduction date of 31 August was scrapped as the Scottish Government took another look at the detail of its plan.

It has now been announced that ministers intend to press ahead with the scheme, with August 2017 being set as a target for implementation.

Deputy first minister John Swinney said a three month period of engagement will begin, with charities consulted.

The Scottish Government has a job to do in achieving the balance between a right to a family and private life and the need to protect children

The Scottish Government will seek to change aspects of information sharing which were the main point of contention for the Supreme Court, which overall called the plan "legitimate and benign".

Swinney said: “For the avoidance of any doubt, this government remains absolutely committed to the named person service. The Supreme Court judgment does not dilute our commitment but it has required us to revise part of the legislation to ensure that it is compatible with the European Court of Human Rights.

“I am keen to commence the provisions of this act as early as possible. However I am also keen to pursue an inclusive approach – one that takes this parliament, stakeholders and the wider public with it.”

Most major Scottish children’s charities have been broadly supportive of the named person plan, including Children in Scotland and Barnardo’s Scotland, whose director Martin Crewe said: “We look forward to working with the Scottish Government and other stakeholders to ensure the named person service works effectively to support children and young people in Scotland.”

However, some smaller charities, such as the Christian Institute, the Tyme Trust and Family Education Trust, came together to form the No2NP group, which has harassed and challenged the government continually on the issue.

It sees named person legislation amounts to allowing state snoopers into the every day lives of families.

Simon Calvert, the group’s spokesman, said: "Whatever the deputy first minister may claim, the named person scheme he ends up with in a year's time will be very different from the policy he wanted.

“Instead of focusing on saving face, the government should be apologising to parents for ignoring their human rights.

"The business as usual message which the Scottish Government had been sending out since the named person ruling, was in danger of leading local authorities to carry on with unlawful sharing of private information on families.

"Having spent years encouraging the widespread illegal sharing of sensitive personal data, they should now be doing everything they can to put a stop to it."

Meanwhile, the move has been backed by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland.

Associate director Ellen Hudson said: “RCN Scotland has always said that the general principles of the named person scheme would play a positive role in promoting, supporting and safeguarding the wellbeing of children and young people in Scotland with health visitors and other frontline practitioners playing a key part in its delivery on the ground.

“However, the complex legal area around the issue of information sharing means that the Scottish Government now has a job to do in terms of achieving the balance between a right to a family and private life, and the need to protect and support children and young people.”

 

Comments

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John Wallace
over 7 years ago
It is the opinion of many, including myself, that it is the those very same small coterie children's charities that have gotten us into this mess because of their lack of knowledge of the law and their greed for government funds.As one senior charity official put it to me:I worked in policy for a youth charity when GIRFEC was being discussed. Then the NP scheme was called a "lead professional" and wouldn't have proactive monitoring responsibility. No-one would have had a problem with that. But the children's charities collectively decided that they could fulfill a much grander ambition because they knew they had the ear of SNP Ministers, and that if they suggested that Government wasn't doing everything they could to protect vulnerable kids then that would be political dynamite. But the job of Government is to stand up to such veiled threats. The SNP refused to do it, and for that I certainly blame them."It is time the Government started listening to parents and charities outside those who have gotten us to where we are now. One should remember that there are over 2,000 children's charities in Scotland according to OSCR and only 11 have come out in favour of named person legislation.What is more shocking is that senior officials of these charities have literally lied in defence of their self-serving proposals and continued to do so on TV interviews over this very weekend.
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Robert McCall
over 7 years ago
For "Intense Engagement" read gradual and systematic take over. The powers that be, .here in Edinburgh, are well aware that every charity is more trusted than they areThis,latest, move is part of a wider strategy of quietly infiltrating charities to take control. Holyrood will raise concern a study will be made and the control of the charity will pass to the friends of Holyrood. Then Holyrood will use these .'Independent' charities to roll out the message in a way that they never could.
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John Wallace
over 7 years ago
You are 100% Right Mr. McCall. It is becoming well known throughout the 3rd Sector in Edinburgh.
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