Campaign against ‘named person’ claims blow against government

However, the Scottish government says the majority of the 133 individual consultation submissions in question “did not engage with the consultation questions”.

It also said the submissions from 149 organisations - including health boards, local authorities and charities - were broadly supportive of the provisions included in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act.

Simon Calvert, a spokesman for NO2NP, told The Herald that a “fight back” was beginning against government plans to assign an individual teacher or health visitor as a point of contact for each child in Scotland from next August, in the event that welfare issues need to be raised with police or social services.

Mr Calvert said: “It looks like parents have hijacked this consultation to start a fight back against the Named Person scheme. On some questions, these individuals are almost unanimous in their disagreement with the Government.

“The government analysis tries to sweep these figures under the rug but there is not getting away from it: the public do not like the Named Person.”

A number of consultation responses from organisations suggested there was “insufficient guidance in relation to the accountability and governance arrangements” underpinning the legislation, particularly in regard to the named person provisions.

Other organisations expressed confusion over the remit of the named person and the potentially wide interpretations of terms like “relevant and proportionate”.

The government says it will address these concerns before rolling out the system.

A government spokesperson added: “There is no obligation on parents or children to approach their named person, but our hope is that people will feel increasingly confident about asking for support should they need it.”