Monday, 9 June 2014
GIRFEC and the CHYP Act - Shades of 1984?
video courtesy of The Schoolhouse
For some considerable time I’ve argued against the Scottish Government’s GIRFEC package and in particular the ‘named person’ and data theft provisions contained in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act.
It was sold as a scheme to protect the most vulnerable children through ‘early intervention’, but in truth it is a data-collecting machine which is already collecting and sharing information about every single child in Scotland, including personal details of every adult connected with the child.
All legislation passed by the Scottish Government must be human rights compliant, but it appears at doesn’t matter at Holyrood. We already have The Children’s Act 1995 which, if implemented correctly, would benefit vulnerable children.
The state seems to be fancying itself as better at parenting than families. The state makes lousy parents - taking children into care, moving them from pillar to post and then abandoning them at 16 or 17 regardless of their ‘wellbeing’.
This new law is an attempt to legalise the data mining of the Scottish population and must be stopped. Such a totalitarian approach is highly dangerous to Scotland’s population.
Thankfully, people with power are now challenging the Scottish Government and today all those who are concerned about the implications of this legislation are being invited to attend a conference at the Holyrood Hotel in Edinburgh. It is organised by Dr Stuart Waiton of Abertay University who has contributed numerous articles and papers during the passage of the CHYP Act.
The seriousness of this nasty piece of legislation has not been lost on one of the UK’s top bloggers. Cranmer has taken up the gauntlet and has a revealing video on his post as well as some very angry commenters concerned that England will be next in line.
It’s with hope in my heart that all parents become aware of how family life is being threatened. Bit by bit over the years politicians have undermined the role of parents. Surely the time has come for politicians to start encouraging parents to live together rather than apart by amending taxation.
I wish those connected with challenging this law every success.
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8 comments:
Having read year article I sat down and wrote a long diatribe on just how ill-conceived, ill-considered, ill-advised and ill-judged this legislation is.
But all that I had written could be summed up in a sing word – this is WRONG.
It’s as plain as the nose on the end of your face – no argument – no debate - this is simply - WRONG.
Thank you for this and for your support in exposing Girfec and associated issues over the years.
A wee word of warning though...
As you yourself point out,this is about much more than the Named Person (highly emotive as the term is). The data theft and associated nasties will continue even if the NP "job description" is sacrificed.......a bit like ID cards.
So while the recent developments are very, very welcome indeed, there is no room for complacency if there are signs of a climb down over the NP.
Governments will never relinquish attempts to maximise the information they hold on their citizens. And many citizens revel in the amount of 'personal' information they make available to all-and-sundry.
Many modern governments adopt the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit strategy for data harvesting, but in far more insidious ways, and more efficiently.
Snowden's revelations highlight the breadth of surveillance, the only surprising result being that so many were surprised!
Place your bets now for when compulsory micro-chipping at birth will first occur.
Indeed it is wrong JRB but the legislation was passed. Now it’s time for people to waken up and ensure it’s rescinded.
Sheila, thanks for mentioning that. We’ll have to keep up the pressure about it too.
Oh Joe, thank goodness I’ll not be around to see that.
Strange they can keep so much of a tally on the majority of folk but have no idea of the numbers who shouldn’t be here isn’t it?
I'm just up and still a bit bleary-eyed. At first I read "Scottish Government" as "Satanic Government".
Shurely Shome Mishtake?
Or not?
It’s beginning to look that way Stewart.
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