Ruth Davidson calls for 'immediate repeal' of named person legislation amid pledge to boost health visitor numbers

Ruth Davidson has vowed to prioritise “immediate repeal” of the named person policy as the Scottish Conservative leader pledged to recruit 500 extra health visitors instead.

Every person under the age of 18 will be given access to a named person, typically a health visitor up to age five and a school teacher thereafter, from the end of August.

However, the policy, which was contained within legislation passed by MSPs over two years ago, is still the subject of a UK Supreme Court case brought by campaigners.

The Tory manifesto, which will be published next week, will set out a “fully-costed plan” to hire a further 500 health visitors in Scotland over the life of the next parliament.

The pledge came as Davidson insisted the party’s manifesto “will propose as well as oppose” as she labelled the named person policy the “most confused and unworkable law ever passed in Holyrood”.

She said: “It is ill-judged, illiberal and intrusive. It imposes layers and layers of extra bureaucracy on a system which is already creaking. 

“My fear is not just that it will heap extra work on health visitors and teachers, though it will; it’s not just that it completely changes the relationship between the state and the family, although it does; my real fear is that by spreading resources so thin to cover every child in the country that it will take away attention from the most vulnerable, making the appalling cases of abuse more likely, not less.”

Davidson told a lunch hosted by the Scottish Parliamentary Journalists’ Association that having more health visitors “is a good thing in and of itself” and “not a substitute for named person”.

She added: “I absolutely do think that the money that was going to go towards named person should be used in a more targeted and focused way to resource those at the sharp end.” 

The Scottish Conservative leader cited comments from a UNISON Scotland survey of health visitors conducted earlier this year that found “more than half said they don’t think it would be a good thing”.

Opponents yesterday leapt on the findings, though few acknowledged only around 30 took part in what the union insisted was a qualitative rather than quantitative exercise.

The Court of Session has dismissed campaigners’ arguments twice, with the UK Supreme Court expected to announce the outcome of an appeal heard last month within weeks.

Speaking before Davidson’s speech, Bill Alexander, director of care and learning at Highland Council, which has had the named person service in place since 2010, told Holyrood referrals to the children’s reporter have more than halved “because they go more appropriately to the named person”. 

Asked about claims that the named person will divert resources away from those most in need, he added: “Quite the opposite, we’ve got social workers with smaller caseloads.

“We’ve got the right children on the child protection register. We’ve got the right children getting social work support - those children with high needs. We’re more confident they’re the right children, but also there are fewer of them and I am confident in five years’ time there will be fewer.”

An SNP spokesman said: “We are already planning to recruit an additional 500 health visitors by 2018. The named person policy is aimed at protecting children’s wellbeing and is about supporting, not diminishing, the role of parents.

“It is widely supported by leading children’s charities and welfare organisations, as well as by the Scottish Police Federation, who say it will help keep children safer.”