Scots toddlers may be sent to state-run “development centres”

Recent articles in The Times and The Mail on Sunday reported that toddlers could be placed in state-run “development centres” under plans “to give the Scottish government more control over how future generations are raised”.

The Government says the proposals are designed to help underprivileged children, but critics warn that any plans to increase the role of the state in childcare could erode the rights of parents.

Proposals include sending officials into homes to check if children have sufficient access to books and toys, and offering parenting courses.

Families found to fall foul of Government testing could see their children being sent to child development centres for up to 30 hours a week from the age of 12 months.

A NO2NP spokesman said: “This is yet another layer of the ‘nanny state’. The vast majority of parents need neither support nor interference from outside bodies and should be trusted and left alone to do what they do best: look after their own children.”

The Mail on Sunday, 29 March 2015
The Times, 30 March 2015