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Keeping you up to date on the progress of the Named Person scheme and the NO2NP campaign.
Children’s charity chief changes tune
Posted 8 years ago
Until recently, Alex Cole-Hamilton, policy chief at Aberlour Child Care Trust was a staunch advocate of the Named Person scheme who was often wheeled out by the Government to defend it:
But reality, it seems, has caught up with him.
Facing countless parents on the doorsteps as he beats the streets of Edinburgh Western as a candidate for the Holyrood elections, he appears to have had something of a conversion.
The Daily Mail says he is calling for parents to be given power to reject their Named Person if the relationship breaks down. Apparently, if no concrete right is inserted in the Named Person scheme, he would advise his party, the Liberal Democrats, to reconsider its support.
Now, his proposal does not begin to address the heart of our concerns, but the very fact that he is talking about changing the Named Person scheme at all, and threatening to withdraw support, is a welcome turn around. After all, lots of people change their minds about the Named Person scheme once they understand what it really means in practice. That’s why more and more people are saying No to Named Persons.
Listen here to what Alex Cole-Hamilton said last year on BBC Radio Scotland in a debate with our own Lesley Scott of TYMES Trust.