The Scottish Conservative leader has pleaded with Nicola Sturgeon to put an emergency brake on her controversial ‘state guardians’ scheme.
Ruth Davidson made the call during a campaign visit to Perthshire as frontline police officers came out in support of the Named Persons policy, saying it will stop more children getting dragged into the justice system.
The scheme, which is due to be rolled out in full in August, assigns a public sector professional normally a teacher or health worker to every child in Scotland.
Ms Davidson said: “Only now are parents waking up to how big an intrusion this is.
“Let’s press the pause button on this, let’s not introduce it across the country in August, let’s get back around the table and find a way to best allocate resources to the young people who are vulnerable and need the support the most.”
Perthshire mum-of-two Clair Brookfield, 41, was one of those who met Ms Davidson at Berryfields Tea Room in Abernethy to raise concerns.
“My worry is that it will undermine the family unit and there doesn’t seem to be any opt out,” she said.
Asked if the policy could set a dangerous precedent over the role of the state, 69-year-old grandfather Barry Saunders from Scone said: “I think you could talk about the Stasi in East Germany here and to that extent I think it’s a slippery slope, but I do not think the people of Scotland will put up with it.”
An SNP spokesman accused Ms Davidson of “naked political opportunism” because she did not vote against the bill when it passed through Holyrood unopposed.
He added: “It is about supporting, not diminishing, the role of parents and has already been upheld by the highest court in Scotland, including a ruling which said the policy had ‘no effect whatsoever on the legal, moral or social relationships within the family’.”
Calum Steele, from the Scottish Police Federation, said: “We believe it will help keep children safer as a range of professionals working together offers opportunities to pick up potential problems at an earlier stage and by doing so can help to keep more children out of the justice system.”