Scotland is almost 200 health visitors short of the number needed in by the NHS, ahead of the roll out of the Government's named person scheme next month, in which they will play a key role.

Campaigners against the scheme, which will see a named guardian allocated to each child in Scotland, called for it to be delayed or scrapped on the back of new NHS workforce figures.

They showed that one in eleven health visitor posts in Scotland is currently vacant with health visitors expected to take on the role of named person for all pre-school children.

Official figures show there are currently 182 vacancies, with 26 having remained unfilled for more than three months.

The Scottish Conservatives said the SNP should pause the scheme as a result of the statistics, to ensure health visitor teams will be ready for its introduction, although shadow education secretary Liz Smith said the party still wanted to see the policy scrapped altogether..

She added: "There are many reasons why the SNP should press pause on this scheme.

“Those who are tasked with implementing it aren’t sure how to, and the families it will affect are unclear on the impact.

“Now we learn there are scores of vacancies across Scotland among the health visitor workforce. That’s going to make it even harder for this unpopular and intrusive policy to work.

“We want to see the law scrapped, and have done from the start. But failing that, the Scottish Government must at least recognise the need for pausing it until people are ready.”

Simon Calvert, spokesman for the campaign group No to Named Persons, said:

“With less than 60 days before this scheme goes live across the country it is mired in utter crisis.

“It's wrong in principle and unworkable in practice. “The Scottish Government boasted 500 additional health visitors would be employed after being told by the Royal College of Nursing they were essential to make this scheme function.

“But they have missed their target by miles."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said the apparent shortage was as a direct result of attempts to recruit more workers: “The rise in vacancies is partly due to the creation of 500 new health visitor posts between 2014 and 2018, and obviously it takes time to fill these posts," she said.

“We are providing funding to health boards to increase the number of health visitors, building on the record high NHS staff levels in Scotland. Our investment will provide training and support to all newly qualifying health visitors, who will play an important role supporting children and family health.”