CHILDREN in Scotland and our co-signatories write to highlight a UK Government consultation about new legal duties that would have serious implications for those working in childminding, nurseries, out-of-school childcare, schools, colleges and universities in Scotland, and those who use these services.
The proposed duties, part of the Counter Terrorism and Security Bill, require public, private and voluntary providers to have regard to the need to prevent people from becoming involved in terrorism and to monitor and report on behaviours. Among many staff caring for and working with children, these duties would fall on, for example, the childminder of a three-year-old and the nursery teacher of a two-year-old.
Children in Scotland has responded to the UK Government, but we believe that the wider public should be aware of what is being proposed. We have challenged the UK Government on the following issues:
Evidence that children attending Scottish childminders, nurseries, out of school clubs, schools and so on, pose any threat of becoming radicalised. If, as we suspect, such evidence doesn't exist, the new duties seem wholly unnecessary.
Scotland already has its own laws and policies to protect children and young people. The approach in Getting It Right For Every Child will help to recognise behavioural changes and to secure appropriate support.
These proposals are divisive. They will distance and alienate certain families and communities from services that are there to help them, not spy on them. The proposals also place service providers in extremely invidious positions.
Children in Scotland and our partners also consider that the proposals infringe the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. We hope that others will join us in challenging the UK Government on this issue.
Jackie Brock, Chief Executive, Children in Scotland; Rami Ousta, Chief Executive, BEMIS (Empowering Scotland's Ethnic and Cultural Minority Communities); Sally Cavers, Manager, Enquire (The Scottish Advice Service for Additional Support for Learning);
Ian Ellis MBE, Chair, National Parent Forum of Scotland; Ali Khan, Executive Chair, ROSHNI (Supporting Minority Ethnic Communities Across Scotland); Maggie Simpson, Chief Executive, Scottish Childminding Association;
Tam Baillie, Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People; Irene Audain, Chief Executive, Scottish Out of School Care Network; Jean Carwood-Edwards, Chief Executive, the Scottish Pre-School Play Association; Gary Christie, Head of Policy, Scottish Refugee Council; Juliet Harris, Director, Together (Scottish Alliance for Children's Rights),
c/o Rosebery House, 9 Haymarket Terrace, Edinburgh.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article