Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon came under fire in late March for claiming that the Named Person scheme is ‘not compulsory’, despite her Government saying exactly the opposite.
Simon Calvert, spokesman for No to Named Persons (NO2NP), said: ‘She may be the only person in Scotland who doesn’t know that the Named Person scheme contains no opt-outs and no provision for parental consent.’
A recent poll revealed that almost two-thirds of Scottish people believe that the Named Person policy is an ‘unacceptable intrusion’.
The research also found that less than a quarter of British adults think every child should be assigned a Named Person.
Supreme Court judges are considering a legal challenge to the scheme, brought by charities and concerned parents.
Though the public service union UNISON support the scheme, many of their members are worried that they will be made scapegoats if a child is harmed. One health visitor reportedly said: ‘I would feel I had lost all right as a parent’, while another predicted that parents will be ‘looking to sue someone’.
The full statutory form of the Named Person scheme is due to come into force in August this year. However, pilot schemes are already operating in many parts of the country.
