All in a name
Is the named person policy set to be the first casualty of Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP minority government?
By Dani Garavelli
▏ AT HIGHLAND COUNCIL HQ Bill Alexander is running his hands across his closely cropped hair in exasperation as he fends off criticism of the Scottish Govern- ment’s named person provision. Te director of care and learning at the local authority which pioneered Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC), the wider policy of which named person is part, has seen it operate effectively for the best part of a decade. So he is bewildered by its portrayal as a ‘snoopers’ charter’ and is con- cerned about the impact the negative publicity is having on staff morale.
After its successful pilot in the Highlands, the named person was rolled out to South and North Lanarkshire, Edinburgh and other local authorities, again with minimal fuss. Indeed, it
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was only after it was enshrined in law, as part 4 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, that public opinion began to turn against it. Ten, several organisations operating under
the banner of the NO2NP campaign unsuc- cessfully challenged the policy at the Court of Session before taking their objections to the Supreme Court. Te Supreme Court has yet to pass judgement. For 18 months now, Alexander has been fighting a rearguard action, debunking some of the wilder claims about the policy while high- lighting the benefits he believes it has wrought. He has repeatedly pointed out that the named person was only added to the GIRFEC pathway project because parents asked for it and that it is
supported by the majority of children’s charities, including Barnardo’s and the Aberlour Trust. But he must feel as if he is whistling in the wind; far from subsiding, antipathy towards the policy is growing daily. Te campaign gathered pace in the run-up to the Holyrood elections as opponents identified it as a chink in the SNP’s armour and Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dug- dale – who had previously supported the policy – called on the party to “press the pause button”. Now the SNP has lost its majority, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson is making the repeal of the policy a priority, this despite the fact South Ayrshire, a Tory-led administration in coalition with Labour, has been implementing the named person policy since 2011. All local authorities which are not already implementing
Photo: Ken Jack / Demotix/Demotix/Press Association Images
NAMED PERSON
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