IN your editorial ("Caveats to consider on Named Persons", The Herald, you record your support for the Scottish Government's state guardian for every child pre-birth to 18 years "as a focus for child protection".
This illustrates in part why this legislation is so dangerous - the conflation of child protection concerns with "wellbeing"' worries. The Named Person service contained in Part 4 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 is not about vulnerable children; the word "vulnerable" does not appear in it once, nor is it in the draft statutory guidance. Rather this legislation is about assessing the intangible, indefinable and immeasurable concept of "wellbeing" in each and every child in Scotland. The Government's own statutory draft guidance states that "wellbeing" can be adversely affected by any matter arising from any factor.
So the distinction between supporting legislation which seeks to protect children who are at risk of significant harm as opposed to that which seeks to police the happiness of every single child in Scotland must be maintained and rigorously upheld.
Deeming all children to be "potentially vulnerable" will only continue the rise in erroneous child protection actions with an incalculable toll on innocent lives.
Lesley Scott,
11 Tullylumb Terrace, Perth.
I MUST disagree with Keith Howell Letters, July 2) when he writes: "It is of course disturbing how often cases of child abuse arise, but they are thankfully applicable to only a small minority of children." Surely neither Mr Howell nor anyone else knows how many sad little souls silently suffer cruelty and abuse, and while some families are known to social work departments, others must fall under the radar, with abuse often revealed only when tragedy occurs and a child is found beaten or starved to death.
I would support the Named Person initiative whichever political party introduced it. It may not be perfect, but if it can save even one precious life, or stop one child from being abused, it is worthwhile, and while clarification of the system may be needed, and glitches within it to be ironed out, don't throw the baby out with the bath water, but let this scheme be put in place to help stop the horrific abuse of children, once and for all.
Ruth Marr,
99 Grampian Road,
Stirling.
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