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Keeping you up to date on the progress of the Named Person scheme and the NO2NP campaign.
Named Person scheme to squander staggering £61 million of public money
Posted 9 years ago
NO2NP recently hit out at the amount of money which has been spent on the Getting It Right For Every Child programme, the foundation of the Named Person scheme.
The results of a freedom of information request made in the last few weeks revealed the details of the costs involved, and they were breathtaking.
A spokesman for the campaign, said: “The Government has been quick to criticise the lack of funds available to them during the current economic climate in crucially important areas like health and education as well as law and order.
“But they have seen fit to squander a staggering £61 million of public money on the Named Person scheme.”
This figure would be equivalent to funding 450 front line social workers or 370 front line police officers.
It is hard to comprehend that the Government thinks this ill thought-out and flawed scheme is of more value than hundreds of extra social workers and police officers which could have been funded with the Named Person and GIRFEC budget over a four-year period.
“Now, that is something which really would have helped vulnerable children”, said NO2NP spokesman, Simon Calvert.
“Instead, this country is being presented with nothing less than a huge white elephant which is taking money away from vulnerable children. Appointing a state guardian for every single child is quite simply money down the drain. It’s totally unnecessary for the vast majority of families who neither need nor want a state official for their children.”
While spending this money on Named Persons for every child and young person under 18 – and there are more than one million of them – there is a real risk that the most vulnerable, those who are most in need of help, will be overlooked amid the welter of useless confidential information about ordinary families generated by the Named Person.
The scheme may be a well-intentioned attempt to prevent children who may be in need of help from ‘slipping through the net’. However, that safety net will only be stretched to breaking point as a result of this policy, raising the prospect that genuine child protection cases will fall through the holes. The authorities already possess all the powers they require to deal with cases of neglect or abuse.
We say consign this project to the legislative dustbin before any more public money is wasted.