Maggie Mellon's Argument Essay: The Named Person Scheme

855 Words2 Pages

All parties to the debate are supportive of the Scottish Government’s aim of all Scotland’s children being protected. Instead, the debate is focuses around if the Named Person is the most effective way to achieve that aim. According to the Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, the Named Person Scheme is an essential part of the Government and the public sector’s responsibility to enhance and support children’s rights. He continues to argues that the origins of the Named Person Scheme, ‘came from families themselves’. This statement would lead to the assumption that the Scheme was grounded in evidence and research. However Maggie Mellon contends the Named Person Scheme for every child is not grounded in any research evidence. Those in favour …show more content…

In contrast according to the Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC) : Parent’s Voice survey, a high percentage of participants were not aware of the named person proposals. This demonstrates that the Government have not consulted enough families and that many have not be provided a sufficient amount of information. Going back to John Sweeney’s statement if that is true, I would assume that in the relevant provision of the 2014 Act parents and families would be at its core. This is not the case, s19 only has reference to the child not the parent, or the family. Maggie Mellon presents the argument that in the legislation there is no focus on the Named Person having to work with families. She suggests that in order to meet the needs of families would read something like :
‘... Persons carrying out this role will be primarily responsible to parents and children to ensure that children’s needs are assessed, and that these assessed needs are met by the responsible agencies’.
Although, I am supportive of the Named Person Scheme in some capacity, I would argue that this amendment to the legislation, before the scheme is implemented is necessary in order to allow parents to feel encompassed and supported by this Act in practice. Instead of the current wording of the legislation which could be argued to be allowing parents to feel alienated and unsure of the

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