TROJAN HORSES – CHILDREN AND GENDER IDENTITY

TROJAN HORSES – CHILDREN AND GENDER IDENTITY

I am going to say a few words about the Named Person law and the response to criticisms. Because it is relevant and there are several lessons from it. 
Just as with gender identity, many people  in social work said it was completely misguided to oppose the Named Person.   Their argument seemed to be that the intentions of government were benevolent. There was cross party support, and the education and social work establishment were all for it.  the problem was that the Named Person law called for unprecedented levels of intrusion into families’ lives and unprecedented breaches of confidentiality, authorising information-sharing about families’ lives across agencies  in great and unnecessary and detail without that family’s knowledge or consent.

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Stand up for social work by joining BASW

Guest blog from Maggie Mellon, Vice Chair of The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Community Care has reported less than a tenth of the profession are involved in the debate following the College of Social Work’s closure announcement. I want as many people as possible to get involved in talking about social work, we must defend and promote our profession and not expect others to do it on our behalf. Here’s my case for why social...

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‘Where’s Kilbrandon Now?’: reviewing child justice in Scotland

  Maggie Mellon reports on 'Where's Kilbrandon Now?', the inquiry into the future of the Scottish children's hearing system. Child Justice in Scotland is based on a system of hearings held by panels .It was established in 1968, in response to a report by Lord Kilbrandon, a senior Scottish laws lord. In recent years the hearings system has come under criticism for being 'too soft', and there have been calls to take child justice back to the...

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Named Person: National Caseworking

By Maggie Mellon Supporters of the Named Person (NP) scheme, who relied mainly on assurances given by the Government and NP’s architects and supporters, might have been surprised by the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that the law needed to be dropped or substantially revised. It was, however, not the assurances that were the subject of the challenge and the Supreme Court ruling. Why the Government and its supporters chose not to refer...

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An Open Letter to John Swinney On Named Person

DEAR John Swinney, You have asked for engagement on the future of the Named Person following the ruling of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled the information sharing provisions unlawful and also cautioned that parental or child consent to share personal information should not be obtained by the threat of any possible consequences. Read more – Swinney defends Named Person scheme in wake of Supreme Court ruling Your decision to decline to...

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A time for change

In our second blog post reviewing the ‘Youth Justice in Scotland’ paper, Maggie Mellon, independent social work consultant and vice-chair of the British Association of Social Workers, makes the case for using this as an opportunity to bring about real change. CYCJ’s attempts to raise the need for reform in the treatment of children and young people who come to the attention of the authorities of offence grounds are welcome.   However, it...

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About Maggie

Maggie Mellon (CQSW, MSc, Dip Child Protection) is a social worker with many years’ experience in both Scotland and England. She has been vice chair of the British Association of Social Workers since 2014, and also chairs the Association’s Ethics and Human Rights Committee. She was formerly Director of Services for Children 1st and Head of Public Policy for NCH Action for Children in Scotland. Chair of the Scottish Child Law Centre from 2009 -12. Currently non–executive Director of NHS Health Scotland and a member of the editorial Board of Scottish Justice Matters. Maggie now works independently as a consultant on social work practice and public policy.