What’s wrong with the Named Person?

Please join us on Monday 30th January at 6pm in Lecture Theatre 3, Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee. This event is free and all are welcome.

In 2014 the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act was passed making it a legal necessity that every child in Scotland, from birth, be appointed a ‘Named Person’ - a state employee who would oversee their ‘wellbeing’ needs.

In July 2016 the Supreme Court in London ruled that the creation of the Named Person breached rights to privacy and family life.

It is now unclear what will happen to the Named Person but there continues to be a vigorous campaign against it being introduced, in any form.

Few would disagree that the state must act to prevent or stop child abuse and neglect. But is it just a case of finding the right balance, or has the contemporary state - exemplified by the Scottish government and the ‘named person’ - fundamentally overstepped the boundary and lost sight of the importance of the private sphere? How far should the state be able to encroach on family life? Should child safety trump privacy? And ultimately, what factors should determine the line between a modern state and its citizenry?

We have invited three of the leading campaigners opposing the Named Person to make their case.

Maggie Mellon

• Independent Social worker, writer, former director of services at Children 1st.

Lesley Scott

• Scottish Officer of the Young ME Sufferers Trust (Tymes Trust). The Trust was a co-petitioner in the recent successful legal action against the Scottish Government in the UK Supreme Court over the Children & Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

Jenny Cunningham

• Until her recent retirement, Jenny Cunningham had been a community paediatrician in Glasgow for 33 years. She has been at the sharp end of the Scottish government’s 'Getting it Right for Every Child’ policy.

Chair: Dr Stuart Waiton

• Senior lecturer in sociology and criminology, Abertay University; author, Snobs' Law: criminalising football fans in an age of intolerance.