Protesters will gather in Angus next week as discontent grows against the Scottish Government’s controversial Named Person scheme.
The No to Named Persons (NO2NP) group will hold a roadshow at the Webster Theatre in Arbroath on Monday at 7.30pm ahead of the scheme’s statutory introduction in August.
A sociologist from Abertay University and the co-founder of a home education group are among the leading Tayside voices speaking out against the plans.
Under the legislation, more than a million children in Scotland aged under 18 will be assigned a “named person”, someone other than their parents a health visitor or head teacher who will have the power to “advise” and “inform” the child or raise matters about the child with the relevant authorities.
Campaigners claim the Government is acting illegally and exceeding its powers by setting up the scheme to appoint state monitors or guardians, in direct contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Alison Preuss is the founder of Dundee-based Scottish Home Education Forum, which is the networking community for home educators.
She said: “It’s a major concern that information is being recorded about children and families without their consent. It’s not just the children whose data is being recorded it’s every associated adult and some people are not aware of that.
“When they actually ask for the information that is written down about them and receive it back it is often laden with value judgments and parents have been really concerned about what is being said about them and shared about them without consent.
“The Government are saying they know what’s best for every child when in reality its parents who know what’s best for their own children. And state dictated outcomes are not necessarily the ones which families agree with.”
Dr Stuart Waiton, senior lecturer in sociology and criminology at Abertay University, said family privacy is being sacrificed and parents undermined.
He said society has become “excessively pre-occupied with the issue of safety” and warned that this trend can produce a “very paranoid society in the way things are organised and how people view relationships”.
“It’s implicit in the Named Person legislation that parents essentially can’t be trusted,” he said.
“The reality is that there are very, very, very few children who need state intervention in their lives.
“So to then say we need a Named Person for every child because of child safety fears is ludicrous.”