Fury over 'Orwellian' psychological tests for schoolchildren which sees them interrogated over whether their parents nurture them enough
- SNP's new state guardian scheme will quiz youngsters about private lives
- A Named Person will be responsible for welfare of every child in Scotland
- The answers will then be stored on a giant government database network
- Branded 'creepy' as children face questions on sexual health and home life
Every youngster in Scotland is to be subtly quizzed about their private lives and asked to complete intrusive questionnaires.
These will ask, among other things, if the child’s parents make them feel special – or even if their home is ‘cosy’.
Schoolchildren in Scotland are to be quizzed about their private lives and asked to complete intrusive questionnaires (stock image)
The Scottish National Party (and its leader Nicola Sturgeon, pictured) has been criticised because of the project
The answers will be stored on a giant government database network and then analysed to pick out pupils for further investigation by Named Persons to which every individual child will be assigned later this year.
Scottish pupils will then face the intrusive tests regularly throughout their school careers after the system goes ‘live’ in August.
Sample questions and possible answers are being used to train Named Persons in quizzing children.
The Mail on Sunday asked social work expert Maggie Mellon to deconstruct the answers and show how they would flag up issues with children’s well-being. What she found will chill every parent.
Some of the concerns raised were legitimate but others were subjective, potentially wrong or even based on prejudice. Respected Ms Mellon concludes the scheme has ‘no validity’.
Campaigners against the new system say concerned whistleblowers in parts of the country including Ayrshire, Fife and East Renfrewshire are claiming teachers are being told by training teams to ‘keep parents in the dark’ about the true nature of the profiling.
Instead, it is claimed that parents will receive letters home stating only that there is some ‘resilience’ testing being carried out with pupils.
Simon Calvert of the No To The Named Person campaign, which is spearheading a legal challenge to the scheme, said the latest revelations were ‘creepy’.
He added: ‘Parents are going to have to tell schools and local authorities to stop spying on their children.
'Psychologically manipulating youngsters so you can squeeze confidential information out of them is fundamentally wrong – but to store all this information on a giant council database is astonishingly foolhardy.
‘It really is beyond time that the Scottish Government called a halt to this whole charade before they do any more damage. It’s Orwellian, it’s immoral and it has to stop.’
Younger children will be encouraged to divulge information about their home life in lessons which include prompt cards, games and songs to familiarise them with the Scottish Government’s definition of well-being.
Older children will face a series of questions, on areas ranging from home life to sexual health, which ask them to rate experiences on a scale from zero to ten.
Teachers across the country are now being trained to transfer the children’s answers into the database. One of the tests, a Scottish Government-endorsed tool called ‘What I Think’, is designed to tease out details of pupils’ family lives with leading questions, even in nursery schools.
A number of sample scenarios involving children are given to teachers to help them with filling in online sections correctly. Examples include a male child, ‘J’ mentioning that he did not miss his mother when staying overnight with his grandmother.
Younger children will be encouraged to divulge information about their home life in lessons which include prompt cards (stock image)
Another describes how he ‘burst his lip at the park’ when he was there by himself but when he went home his father shouted at him, telling him he was ‘a big boy and I shouldn’t cry like a big baby’.
Others refer to him telling feeling scared in his room sometimes and, while his mother allows him to keep the light on sometimes, ‘if I’m not good she puts it off’.
In Angus, pupils are being given prompt cards which include questions such as: ‘Who cleans your house? Is it cosy? Who makes the tea? What does your bedroom look like?’
Prompt cards have also been produced for parents, encouraging them to ‘behave in a way that sets a good example to your child’ and ‘participate in community activities’.
The cards were developed by Angus Council and are being used by other Scottish local authorities.
There has already been fury across Scotland about tests for older children which ask them if they drink, smoke or commit crime and if they feel close to their parents.
Named Persons must judge each youngster’s well-being against a government checklist that includes indicators such as a pupil needing fillings at the dentist, being disruptive in class or failing to carry out voluntary work.
An investigation involving social workers could follow if a youngster is not ‘generally optimistic’, fails to display ‘positive attitudes to others’ sexuality’ or is injured playing sport.
Each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities is already given software to keep track of pupils’ attendance, performance and behaviour on a system called SEEMiS, with information shared with the Scottish Government and the NHS.
But the system was upgraded last Thursday to include a section with a ‘Well-being Application’ which will act as a repository for data which will be accessible only to designated state guardians.
Critics say the profiling scheme goes even further than a controversial ‘ContactPoint’ system in England which was scrapped in 2010 following warnings it was illegal and unsafe.
There has already been fury across Scotland about tests for older children which ask them if they drink, smoke or commit crime and if they feel close to their parents (stock image)
Now there are fears that centralising the files of a million children – including their name, address, route to school, hobbies and even photographs – could leave them at risk of being stolen.
Yesterday, Dr Stuart Waiton, senior sociology lecturer at Abertay University in Dundee, said: ‘A major problem with the Named Person professionals is that they appear to have lost any sense of the family as an important private institution for society. Trust, loyalty and privacy in their warped eyes are transformed into secrets being hidden “behind closed doors”.
'Once we see every child as vulnerable and every family as potentially toxic, the result is that professionals see less of a problem with interfering in the private lives of children and parents.’
Under the Named Person scheme, every child is to be appointed a state guardian at birth to monitor their wellbeing up until the age of 18. All families will receive 11 compulsory visits to inspect their parenting skills before a child starts classes.
Named Persons will be entitled to demand information and share it with police and social workers without parents’ consent or knowledge.
Yesterday, Angus Council insisted the questions on its prompt card system were to ‘support’ families rather than ‘assess’ them.
An East Renfrewshire Council spokesman denied its tests were ‘psychological profiling’, adding: ‘We are proud of the ongoing process of open and transparent engagement that we enjoy with the parents or carers of our pupils.’
A Scottish Government spokesman declined to comment on the tests, saying it was down to councils to respond.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3467642/Fury-Orwellian-psychological-tests-schoolchildren-sees-interrogated-parents-nurture-enough.html#ixzz41Z9Ir9zD
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