Nearly every time I log into Facebook nowadays, I am faced with yet another post about the Named Person Act. Somebody always has a problem with it, often people who are not children and do not have children themselves! The same thing happened last night, a good friend of mine bemoaning the legislation, and now I am going to put my own opinion across!

To be fair on some people, simply being told that your child has a ‘Named Person’ surely sets off alarm bells. I don’t have children myself, but I can completely understand how a parent may feel, it does sound like there is someone who is in charge of a child over the parent, so I can see why they may panic. I asked my mum recently and she said “No one has my child’s best interests at heart more than me”.  The problem comes when people stop there and don’t put any effort into finding out.

First, I’m going to try to explain what exactly the Named Person Act is and what it offers us. The role of the named person is to support children through the various trials and difficulties of their childhoods, be that moving school, bereavement, disabilities or something more serious. They are a point of contact for the children and families they work with. Before starting school, the named person is a child’s health visitor, and once they start school it will usually be the head teacher at their school, or possibly their guidance teacher.

The Scottish Government’s Website explains:

“What will a Named Person do?

The Named Person will be available to listen, advise and help a child or young person and their family, providing direct support or helping them to access other services.  They can help families address their concerns early and prevent them becoming more serious.

They can also respond to requests for assistance from other services in situations where this may support the child’s or young person’s wellbeing.”

Does it say that the named person will take over from parents? Does it say that they will have children removed from their families? Does it say that the named person is in charge of the child in any way?

The answer is definitely no to all of these questions.

Now, my own understanding of a ‘named person’ is that the named person is the individual whom anyone who is concerned about a child can go to to share their concern. This means that concerns are shared with the appointed professional, who then has a full and more rounded picture of the life of the child in question.

For example, say a child’s teacher notices something in a child’s behaviour changes,  then the school nurse notices something that causes them to have a concern, a social worker involved with the family is made aware of a change in the family’s circumstances, and finally then the child tells their scout leader something that raises their concern. If this information is not shared, the circumstances could become worse and cause something significantly more serious to happen. The Named Person’s role is to receive this information and build up a picture of the life of the child and inform the relevant professionals, deal with the problem themselves, or simply keep the information on record for future use.

To find out what people think of the legislation, I asked a few people I know for their opinions, here are some of their responses:

“Good idea for vulnerable children to give them neutral support if there are other professionals involved with the child.  Not necessary for all children”

There are countless services out their like social workers, Childline which do similar things & I think improving those services would be much more beneficial”. 

“I can’t see it being that effective compared to other services”

“a total waste of time”

“it undermines the parents and from what I can tell grants the person access to confidential information about the family and they have no say in the selection “

“I don’t see how this will actually help identify vulnerable individuals when everyone has a state guardian”

“affront to the freedoms of both parent & child”

“we shouldn’t operate on the presumption that all parents need monitoring”

“I guess they are a good thing but if people didn’t understand what level of involvement they would have then I could see why they’d be against them.”

This clearly shows that, while not everyone is in complete opposition to it, most people are not open to the legislation at all. I think that it is essential now to educate people, specifically parents in what this legislation is all about and what it means to them. The GIRFEC documentation refers to the role of the named person, saying:

“The Named Person also needs to help children and families feel confident they can raise concerns and talk about their worries to people who will listen and respect their point of view and work with them to sort things out”

This means that parents need to be informed that the named person is there for them and is not just a faceless professional who’s going to turn on them when things become difficult.

Ultimately, you and your families will probably never need to use your child’s entitlement to their named person, but who are you to deny that right to others, people who need the support or in extreme cases – intervention. To me it is essential the children have as many professionals looking out for them and their wellbeing as possible, and it is equally important that they understand this right and know that they are entitled to all the support they need. As I have already said, the ‘Named Person’ is not there to make parental decisions on behalf of children, but to co-ordinate people and resources, if the Scottish Government are guilty of anything when bringing in this legislation, it’s a poor choice of name for it!

 

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/gettingitright/named-person

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/gettingitright/named-person/top-ten

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0042/00423979.pdf