Campaigners renew attack on controversial '˜state guardians'

Campaigners have renewed attacks on the controversial plan to have a state-appointed guardian for every child in Scotland as the Supreme Court in London prepares to start a two-day hearing over a bid to have the legislation overturned.

Childrens minister Aileen Campbell backed new laws. Picture: Robert Perry

Under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act a single point of contact, such as a teacher or health visitor, would be assigned to look out for the welfare of children under 18.

Scotland’s courts have already rejected claims in a Judicial Review that Holyrood exceeded its powers in passing the named person law.

However, the arguments will go before a five-strong bench at the Supreme Court tomorrow in a legal challenge mounted by the No To Named Persons (NO2NP) campaign.

The campaign said that more than £61 million of taxpayers’ money has been allocated to cover the cost of introducing the policy, figures it cited from documents released under freedom of information laws.

Opponents of the scheme have said that the policy undermines the role of parents and families and is intrusive because it gives monitoring power to the state.

A spokesman for NO2NP, said: “This is a breathtaking amount of money on what has become one of this government’s most controversial and accident-prone policies.

“It’s totally unnecessary for the vast majority of families who neither need nor want a state official for their children.”

Children’s minister Aileen Campbell has previously said that the plan provides a “single point of contact for families and builds on the supportive role [of] teachers and health professionals.”