A child well-being survey linked to the controversial Named Person scheme in Scotland has been ‘paused’ by a local council after parents raised serious concerns about the intrusive nature of the research, it was reported at the end of August.
North Ayrshire Council suspended the ‘ChildrenCount’ surveys, which were carried out by researchers who knocked on doors and asked parents questions about their children.
The Daily Record reported criticism from parents who said the questionnaire was ‘creepy’. One resident said researchers had quizzed young people in the street about which houses had children under nine. The survey, which is part of a project also being rolled out in Dundee and Angus, has been adapted from questionnaires that were used across Perth and Kinross last year.
Kenneth Roy, ex-BBC journalist and editor of online magazine Scottish Review, also made the link between the ChildrenCount surveys and the Named Person scheme. In a piece entitled, ‘We are sleepwalking into an authoritarian Scotland’, he wrote: ‘This is not some innocuous local initiative. After the pilot in Perth and Kinross, it feels like the next stage in a grand plan: the creation of a massive national database backing up the present administration’s intention to have a ‘Named Person’ for every child in Scotland. The named persons will be public officials. They will assume the role of advisors and guides to our children, though only in office hours and not on bank holidays’.
