A youth worker due to become a named person has warned the controversial Scottish Government policy will unleash "pandemonium".
Dr Simon Knight, a senior youth worker in Glasgow, described plans to assign a single point of contact such as a teacher or health visitor to look out for the welfare of every child as "rotten".
Writing in the Herald newspaper, he said he had recently discovered he was to become a named person for young people who have left school but who are still under 18, and raised fears a combination of guidelines and a risk-averse approach would "transform" minor concerns.
Read more: John Swinney sticks to his guns as he prepares for named person battle
He said: "Despite the anticipated endless list of protocols, some individuals will be more enthusiastic or risk-averse than others.
"These days there are no such things as accidents. In retrospect, everything has a causal set of occurrences that 'could have been avoided'.
"It's easy to be wise after the event but named persons will be tracking concerns forward and predicting future outcomes for every child - including your child."
He said the policy would "inevitably" increase the workloads of named persons and questioned what would happen if they went on holiday or sick leave.
"Because it is a legal obligation and because no-one wants to get blamed, minor issues will be prioritised over other important work.
"Cases of serious harm will inevitably get lost in all the clutter."
He continued: "I think the Scottish Government is beginning to recognise the pandemonium that it is about to unleash and is looking for a way to water down the proposals.
Read more: John Swinney blasts 'named person' critics over Liam Fee comments
"It was no accident that the First Minister used the term 'entitlement' instead of 'obligation'.But the whole thing is rotten.
"Parents are infinitely more consistent than any state guardian. Just because things aren't ideal doesn't make them problematic. Just who do these people think they are?
Read more: Government delays PR push to sell named person scheme to parents
"Sinister plot or political farce - someone needs to stop the bus on this one."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel