THE SCOTTISH NEW ORDER - A SOCIAL WORKER FOR EVERY CHILD

The Scottish National Party (SNP) are leaders in establishing the contemporary Nanny State.  Their triumphant piece of legislation is the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill, under which every child from birth will be given a "named person", charged with keeping an eye on that child's interests until he or she reaches adulthood (age of 18).  A specific government worker will be assigned to every child at birth. These “named persons” will be charged with safeguarding each child’s welfare and with representing the state to the family.  Lets repeat that - every child in Scotland, not just children who are subject to abuse or neglect, gets a state minder.

The Children and Young People Bill was introduced to Parliament on 17 April 2013, passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament on 19 February 2013, and received Royal Assent on 27 March 2014, making the Bill an Act of the Scottish Parliament.  The legislation is intended to be fully implemented by 2016.  It is a World First - there has not been a scheme providing for universal state surveillance of youth since the Nazis made the Hitler Youth compulsory for all German children in 1939.  The guardians will be chosen from among existing teachers and healthcare professionals and will be people who may already exist in a child's life but they are being given extra powers which make them in effect an overseer of parents and parenting.

The scheme has been trialed in the Highlands since 2010.   A council spokeswoman says 7,927 children have been given a “child’s plan” by a head teacher or health visitor.  Before the trial began, there were just 64 children on the child protection at-risk register in the whole Highland council area, now every child is supervised AS IF at-risk.

Every Health Board in Scotland must appoint a “named person” to every child at birth - the named person will be a health worker until the child reaches the age of five.  After the age of 5 the responsibility will then pass to councils until the child reaches 18, with teachers expected to be asked to take on the role. 

A Health Board is responsible for keeping records, not only on every child but on their parents too, who will be assessed against the new National Risk Framework. This can be used by “any practitioner in any circumstances where agencies are exploring a child’s needs”. Section 23 of the bill, “Communication in relation to movement of children and young people” requires that if any family in Scotland moves home, their local health board/authority current “named person” must pass on all the information held on each adult and child to the “named person” in the area to which the child moves.  A head start perhaps on a dossier which will be built up over a person’s lifetime. 

The new legislation significantly reduces the threshold for state intervention in a child’s parenting. The previous test was that a child must be at “serious risk of harm”; now the test is merely the risk of not meeting state dictated ‘wellbeing’ outcomes. These well-being outcomes are set out in a “National Risk Framework to Support the Assessment of Children and Young People.   What comes through very clearly in this document is that parents must be compliant.  They had better not shown any resistance to the opinions and actions of the intervening professional.    What is required (if parents do not want to “lose” their children) is “An admission by a parent of the problem and a willingness to co-operate with a treatment and intervention programme ...”  A resistance related risk Indicator for a parent includes merely having “a different perception of the problems/risks.”  In Nazi Germany children could be taken away from their parents if they did not provide a "politically reliable" home; in modern Scotland a child will be taken away if the parent fails to provide the kind of idealized, middle-class parenting that young social workers were taught in university. 

PART 5 of Scotland’s totalitarian legislation is headed CHILD’S PLAN.  Yes the State has a PLAN for each child that a Named Person thinks has a well-being need.  The Named Person will rarely be called out for making a wrong assessment since “A child has a wellbeing need if the child’s wellbeing is being, or is at risk of being, adversely affected by any matter.”  When Big Mother has identified a well-being need the child is made the subject of a “targeted intervention”.  At that point the state will decide whether the targeted boy or girl requires a CHILD’S PLAN.   The responsible authority is required only as “reasonably practicable to ascertain and have regard to the views of the child, and the child’s parents.”   Scotland’s very own Balder von Shirach, Children's Minister Aileen Campbell, very magnanimously declared "we recognise that parents ALSO have a role" in raising their children.  A subsidiary one, of course.

The scheme fundamentally replaces parents with state officials.  For example under new guidance issued to Scotland’s schools teachers whose under age pupils admit having sex are instructed to inform the SNP’s planned network of “state guardians” instead of parents. The Scottish Government document advises teachers they should contact the youngster’s “named person” if a pupil tells them about sexual behaviour that raises a “child protection concern”. Any other information that raises the possibility the pupil’s welfare is at risk must also be passed to the named person, according to the advice.  It makes no mention of telling mothers or fathers.

Perhaps the order of the initials for Scotland’s ruling party got mixed up.  Rather than SNP it should be NSP as in National Socialist Party or Nazi.