The SNP must publish evidence on the controversial named person and GIRFEC policy as a matter of openness, the Scottish Conservatives said today.
The expert steering group set up to oversee the introduction of state guardians by the SNP was scrapped by ministers earlier this year.
Now in a letter to children and young people minister, Aileen Campbell, the Scottish Government has been asked to publish all the advice it received from professionals about the implication of the scheme.
Many of the provisions of the contentious policy are still to come into force, including the plan to assign a ‘named person’ to every under-18 in Scotland.
But because the expert panel has now been scrapped – there is now no way of the public finding out what concerns the group of professionals fed back to the SNP about the policy.
The named person and GIRFEC plan has been flawed from the start, with many parent groups condemning it as a “monstrous” invasion into family life.
Scottish Conservative young people spokeswoman Liz Smith said:
“It was clear in the summer that several key groups, including the police, had serious concerns about the implantation of GIRFEC, especially the named person part.
“These concerns have only increased, as have concerns about the bureaucracy involved for professionals on the frontline.
“That point was made by Greg Dempster of the association of heads and deputes in Scotland at the education committee on November 17.
“The closer it gets to the time when named persons are mandatory for all 0-18-year-olds the greater the worry among the public about what the legislation really means for their children.
“It seems that this was exactly the same concern among Scottish Government advisers, and so in the absence of this board, the Scottish Government most publish all the evidence it received about GIRFEC.”