Campaigners criticised the Scottish Government in late November for scrapping an expert committee on the implementation of the Named Person (NP) legislation, set to come into force next year, at the point it raised valid child protection risks which contradicted government aims for the NP scheme.
Minutes from a meeting of the GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) Programme Board last year have revealed that Police Scotland ‘raised issues surrounding ensuring high-risk children remained a focus’.
The decision to stop the group was not publicised and committee documents show it was planning to work until at least August 2016, when the Named Person scheme is set to start.
Earlier this year, Police Scotland warned about a ‘lack of clarity’ in the NP provisions, and raised fears that the scheme could delay removing children from abusers because officials are spending time conducting ‘well-being’ assessments.
Complaints have been made about the Hopscotch Theatre Company which has been touring primary schools with its ‘Rights of the Child’ production, which appears to make reference to the NP scheme and has been accused of downgrading the role of parents. A song line: ‘We’ve a right to have a name protecting us from strangers’ was dismissed as making reference to the NP scheme, with the group claiming it had ‘absolutely no idea what the NP scheme was’. Commentators have noted that if children have a right to any name protecting them from strangers, then it should be their parents, not a member of the state.
