WHEN the Supreme Court ruled in July 2016 that aspects of the Scottish Government’s named persons policy were unlawful, both sides of a fractious debate boasted of success.
The Government said rightly the court had rejected most of the arguments of the campaign group, No To Named Persons (No2NP).
The court dismissed claims the Government was trying to legislate in areas reserved to Westminster. And, critically, it said providing a named person for every child did not breach human rights and was compatible with EU law.
But the court did rule the information-sharing provisions within the 2014 Children and Young people (Scotland) Act had the potential to breach the rights of children and parents to a private and family life, effectively blocking the policy from being implemented.
It was an embarrassing reversal for the Government, which had fought a battle to justify the law in the face of a vocal and often quite alarmist campaign and fierce opposition from sections of the media.
Much was misleading – such as an obscure leaflet about treating your child with respect, which was used to justify claims that a named person would treat a child as at risk if parents did not let them choose their own wallpaper or buy a video game they wanted.
Misinformation also included equating the named persons policy with the Government’s respected child protection agenda Getting it Right For Every Child – conflating the costs of the two to the detriment of named persons.
The opposition was belatedly joined by the Scottish Conservatives, conveniently forgetting they were part of the cross-party consensus that passed the original legislation by 103 votes to zero, at Holyrood in 2014. The Government has now acted on its insistence the policy could be fixed.
There are significant climbdowns involved. No2NP can claim a victory with the clarification that parents will not be viewed with suspicion simply because they choose not to follow the advice of a named person. Guidance will have to be provided to named persons on how to prioritise child safety while recognising human rights, data and confidentiality rules.
But the policy goes ahead, so the victory claimed yesterday by opponents seems partial at best. The Conservatives’ Liz Smith says the policy “was a huge mistake from beginning to end”, and talks of a “huge U-turn”. But it is a funny U-turn that takes a huge mistake and leaves it more or less intact.
Simon Calvert, of No2NP, said the Government had spent £60 million on Getting It Right For Every Child. “It is now quite clear they didn’t get it right - and actually got it completely wrong,” he said. Except Getting It Right For Every Child remains, and is widely accepted as a good policy.
No2NP says of ministers: “They have now been forced to accept their original draconian Big Brother proposals were an utter shambles from the start.” But really, they haven’t. Instead, everybody has climbed down a little, with the Government listening more and the No2NP campaign accepting named persons will go ahead.
This costly, attritional battle may have to be declared a tie.
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