Scotland: named person scheme

Written by David Fletcher 17 Mar 2017
Scotland: named person scheme

John Swinney MSP, Deputy First Minister and cabinet secretary for education, has outlined his intent to relaunch the controversial Named Person Scheme. The Scottish Government was compelled to rethink its approach following the success of the No to Named Person Coalition, which argued before the Supreme Court that the scheme was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. CARE also raised concerns that the scheme is an unwelcome intrusion which will undermine parental authority and potentially misuse private data; in practice, parents are best placed to take care of their children. Mr Swinney has not clarified whether the scheme will be proactive or will be responsive to parents’ needs. Whilst CARE is pleased that there has been a consultation on how data will be shared, there has been little attempt to define key terms in the bill which could potentially lead to huge discrepancies in its operation.

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