SNP minister comes under fire from ex-teachers over Named Person plans

A senior member of the SNP Government has come face to face with critics of the Named Person plans.

Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and Communities Alex Neil was speaking at an event designed to discuss priorities for the Scottish Government.

But the Evening Times reported that the Named Person plans became the focus of the event.

An unnamed former teacher said the Government was “sending spies into people’s homes”.

“We should be giving teachers less work and not more”, she commented.

“I can’t see how Scotland can get fairer when we have got this level of state interference in the family”, the ex-teacher added.

Frances Burnistoun, a retired teacher from Woodside in Glasgow, asked: “Who is going to decide what is acceptable. People are going to feel that this is an intrusion.”

Mr Neil responded that the Named Person scheme has been tried in a number of different areas and claimed it has “worked effectively”.