Social worker of 40 years fails to notice the difference between the role of social worker and Named Person

Colin Turbett, a retired social worker, has written in CommonSpace in favour of the Named Person scheme. Perhaps, because of his forty years experience in this field he presents a grim view of ordinary family life. Beginning his account by recalling an isolated community in Newfoundland he tells how social work services began targeting the area with state interventions, using frontline staff in schools and health settings, to root out the sexual abuse that had been going on in poor families for generations. That`s the story.

It is difficult to understand why he would confuse a serious child abuse matter in an isolated region in Canada - which he sees as a class issue - with what is going to be happening in Scotland regarding the Named Person service. It is as if he is suggesting that behind many closed doors in poor homes there lurks similar dark secrets. That is grotesquely insulting. Even so, Scotland already has its own child social work service, and teachers and health visitors already have a responsibility to look out for signs of abuse. So far, no different, and no need for a Named Person.

At this stage, Mr Turbett has failed to make a case for the Named Person which, after all, is a service to promote, support or safeguard the wellbeing of the child or young person.

Mr Turbett then recalls Paula, who at four years old, had been pushed down the stairs by her father causing her face to be permanently disfigured. Because of this and her difficult background, she grew up lacking confidence, left school to be jobless at sixteen and was pregnant at seventeen. With a referral from the midwife, there followed a social work assessment which judged Paula to be lacking the basic skills required to take care of her baby. The child was then removed at birth.

"We offered her as much support as we could – this even involved taking her out and purchasing underwear – something her mum had never done as she grew up and she had never experienced herself, and trying hard to improve her sense of self worth."

 

I cannot imagine a set of circumstances less likely to inspire confidence or a sense of self worth in a young woman.

The point Mr Turbett is making, of course, is that had there been earlier intervention in Paula`s life, things may have turned out differently. But that is impossible to know. What we can infer is that action was taken in the life of this seventeen  year old girl, instigated by the midwife - a potential Named Person - and the only intervention on offer was forced adoption, which is no support at all. That actually means there is a good case to be made for putting resources where they are needed, that is with the Paula`s of this world, rather than with a universal system that most people do not need.

The rest of the article is a disjointed mish mash about the inequalities created by capitalism and neoliberalism that does nothing to illuminate the role of the Named Person or why anybody should support it.

"Capitalism and its inequalities create such circumstances and state interventions are needed all too often in Scotland’s poorer communities. This is certainly a class issue and one where state intrusion into family life should take place in order to look after the most vulnerable."

Confusingly, he goes on to say: 

"NP will no doubt focus on working class people for obvious reasons but it should also pick up on the less visible middle class child victims who are largely absent from social work caseloads."

https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/8653/colin-turbett-lets-make-named-person-work-radical-social-work-view

 Like many supporters of the Named Person scheme,  Colin Turbett, despite his experience of forty years, fails to acknowledge that the role of social workers and Named Persons are different. [One wonders if he ever got around to reading the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014] The former is set up to rescue children from abuse, whereas the latter - to put it in a nutshell - is a tool to monitor the `happiness` of all children.

As for Named Persons and their potential to intrude at an early stage, the workforce itself is worried about the extra responsibilities.

"We are becoming social workers and the named person role will add responsibility and stress to experienced health visitors and probably greater stress to newly qualified health visitors. The amount of information that will be passed to health visitors will be like an avalanche. Education has already been told that the health visitors are the named person and are passing information which isn't health issues on a regular basis. The assessments which will be linked to the named person will be time consuming and complex at a time when core business is increasing with a computer system which isn't fit for purpose."

http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/publicworks/HealthVisitorSurvey_UNISONScotlandReport_Jan2016.pdf

Like all supporters of the Named Person scheme, the data grab that underlines the legislation is never mentioned.

Nobody explains it better than Alison Preuss. See her `must read` article in TES below:

https://leahurst66.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/alls-not-well-with-the-legal-duties-on-wellbeing-tes-scotland/

 

 

John Swinney`s astonishing performance at Holyrood while dodging answering a legitimate question.

Keeping the child at the centre

"An ambitious plan to ensure children across North Ayrshire get the best possible start has been launched. Called “Getting it Right For You”, the far-reaching strategy will be implemented over the next four years to improve children’s services and is a North Ayrshire first. It is based on the life of a child, covering the early years, primary and secondary school and contains a range of `promises`."

"The plan is the strategic response to the Children Count survey – one of the most powerful pieces of work carried out in developing children’s services in North Ayrshire. Almost 8000 young people and 630 families with young children took part in the survey which was designed by the Dartington Social Research Unit – a pioneering independent charity using data and evidence to influence policy to improve children’s outcomes."

Read more at http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/north-ayrshire-council-launch-ambitious-8208071#IW4aKvFGu72owBkf.99

All very positive until you look at some of the promises which have resulted from the Children Count survey:

• your mum will have a named midwife who will look after both of you

• if your mum smokes, drinks alcohol or takes substances when she is pregnant with you, we will offer her a programme to help her to stop

• we will help your mum if she wants to breastfeed, as this is best for you

• we will support your dad and family members as they will be of great support to you and your mum

• you will have a named person (health visitor) who will be there for you and your family

• we will help your mum and dad learn what is important to be a supportive and confident parent.

In other words, there is little confidence in the quality of parenting in North Ayrshire and for the next eighteen years the Named Person will  keep a firm grip of mum and dad.

It`s called keeping the child at the centre. If ever a policy was designed to build a wedge between parents and their children, this is it.

Transforming children`s services conference Perth march 2016

 

John Swinney MSP, speaking at the `transforming children`s services conference` explains the thinking behind the data driven `learning journey` that is GIRFEC.
 

It means professionals working in collaboration, planning and designing early interventions and preventative services so that problems within families are nipped in the bud now, reducing the expenditure of more serious developments in the future. Since nobody can say what will happen in the future, that has got to be an act of faith.

Regardless, Mr Swinney feels that progress has been too slow and urges service providers to get on with it.
 

Knowing that the child is at the centre - for who does not support children`s wellbeing? - practitioners should have the confidence to break out of their silos, join together, and deal aggressively with objections from people and organisations who would set up barriers to this unified endeavour.

=================================

 

A unified endeavour that must deal with objectors aggressively; but that has got to include parents. Scary.

 

Building stronger families ?

 

"Most people, when they find work think that they are safe, that they don`t have to worry about the Jobcentre anymore. They, quite rightly, feel that they have achieved a great goal and have found a job. Whether that job is a part time job or full time job it is what both themselves and the DWP want. They think that they won`t be monitored anymore, that they will be free to enjoy their life. All that will be changing once everyone is switched over to Universal Credit."

"Universal Credit will be taking over the Working Tax Credit, and Child Tax Credit element and therefore if you either work part time hours, or earn a low wage and have to top up with Working Tax Credit, Child Tax credit and Housing Benefit you will be forced to comply with in work conditionality..."

"According to the select committee report your employer will become a co-signer to your claimant commitment that you will be forced to sign, and adhere to once you are shifted over to Universal Credit..."

"What happened to the data protection act I hear you ask? Last year there was a cross party campaign, including Labour politicians to allow third parties access to your claimant information. They thought that this would be a good thing, and they thought this because it would allow agencies such as housing associations access to your claimant information so they could ‘help’ you."

"This will ensure that there will be no privacy for Universal Credit claimants."

"To make this very clear. Universal Credit claimants that are working have to be answerable to their ‘job coach’. They have to be seen to do adequate jobsearches and they have to prove that they are doing this, the same as unemployed Universal Credit claimants. The job searches on top of their working hours can range from 16-30 hours, depending on the hours that you have worked. The new powers will enable employers to become involved with this."

"They already have plans to move this scheme to higher earning claimants and will implement in work progression to those earning up to 20k to level it off to the benefit cap. In their words `If in work progression is such a good thing for the 1 million poorer workers, why not benefit the better off workers to the same conditionality?`"

"`We will treat working claimants with light touch conditionality.` Tell that to the workers that have already been sanctioned and are suffering, many with children."

https://thepoorsideoflife.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/in-work-conditonality-the-very-worrying-select-committee-report/

An East Lothian pilot of the new Universal Credit system of benefits has been branded an `experiment in cruelty` by a local councillor.

http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/14503502.Pilot_of_new_benefits_system_in_East_Lothian_labelled_an__experiment_in_cruelty_/

The children`s workforce is encouraged to collect the data

Sir Harry Burns, professor of global public health at the University of Strathclyde, has an incredibly myopic view of the social origins of health and wellbeing.

Speaking at the launch of the Early Years Collaborative on 1 October 2012, he began by talking about detecting and treating diabetes in order to prevent deaths and equated that with the need to share information about families in difficulty in order to prevent future problems.

"The situation is very similar for children. In Scotland today we have hundreds of children living miserable lives, poor quality lives, unsupported, living in families of great difficulty and those children are destined for failure. They are destined to be unhealthy. They are destined to do badly at school. They are destined to have difficult lives that may end up with criminal convictions, and so on. The evidence around that link between experience of early years and poor outcomes in later life is just as robust as the evidence that links diabetes with poor outcomes if it`s left untreated."

 

Actually, statistically speaking, it looks more like he is making the link between diabetes and what happens to children coming out of the care system, but that is not something he wants to draw to anybody`s attention. His mission is something else.

"The challenge you are about to take on," he says to his audience, "is to look at that evidence and commit yourselves to collecting the data that allows you to detect the problem and agree on the evidence based interventions to manage it. That`s really really important."

 

He is urging the children`s workforce to collect the data that allows them to detect the problem. The problem is going to happen some time in the future, of course, and the future could lead to any number of problems, or none at all. So that is quite a challenge. If the audience is feeling nervous - and they seem to need encouragement from Sir Harry - there is no surprise there.

Then having detected the problem, by identifying families in difficulty, I suppose -  although by doing that they have not actually identified the `problem` at all because that lies in an uncertain future -  the children`s workforce must agree on the evidence based interventions to manage it.

To which we must ask the question: how can you have an evidence based intervention when the outcome, and therefore the evidence, lies in the future which is yet to be determined? Well, you can`t.

Elsewhere, Harry Burns has drawn comparisons between Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. The disadvantaged in these cities have the same socio-economic backgrounds; the same rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease, for example, but in parts of Glasgow outcomes are much worse, according to Sir Harry. When he examined the data he found that the poorer outcomes in Glasgow were due to additional factors like suicides, violence, alcoholism and drug addiction.
 

Now that is pretty bad. Sir Harry recounts that when an Australian visitor heard about that his immediate response was to say: "That`s what happened to the Australian aborigines."

It gave me quite a jolt to hear it expressed that way. It`s as if some Scots are living on reservations in their own country without any hope at all; and just like the Australian aborigines, with these early interventions being put in place, they will lose their children in greater numbers. The myopic view is going to pile injustice on top of injustice.

Sir Harry goes on to say that in the past few weeks, it has suddenly dawned on some southern European countries that they are storing up trouble for the future, given the economic climate they are facing. So they are very interested in what Scotland is doing to support children in the early years.

Now as far as I`m concerned, Sir Harry has just blown it, because there is an admission there that the economic climate bears down on families and children.

This is a good place to have a look at the discussion between Yanis Varoufakis and Noam Chomsky who have a lot to say about the hypocrisy, financial fraud and willingness to crash whole countries that goes on amongst the elite in Europe and elsewhere.

By getting a wider perspective, it will be clear that anybody who says that a country can pull itself up by the bootstraps by focusing on what goes on in the uterus and the first few years of life, is talking absolute rubbish.

 

There`s a very good reason why Sir Harry got a knighthood. It`s these same elite groups who want the data.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OTS-B-46Gc

Repeated failings led to a child`s records being stolen

"A council could face court action unless it fully implements staff training on data protection."

"The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has now issued an enforcement notice to West Dunbartonshire Council over repeated failings that eventually led to a child's medical reports being stolen."

"After an audit of the council in January 2013, management were told to implement training on data protection and guidance on home working for staff."

"ICO said a follow-up in November 2013 found progress but showed some of the recommendations had not been implemented..."

"Ken Macdonald, assistant information commissioner for Scotland, said: `Time and time again we have told this council to make these changes and yet they have still not completed everything we set out. We've been left with no choice but to issue this formal notice requiring them to act`."

"`Let's be clear, what we're asking for here is a basic requirement for an organisation that is trusted with large amounts of local people's personal data.`"

"`When people in Dunbartonshire provide the council with their details, they expect staff are trained to handle this information properly`."

"`Unfortunately, more than three years after this was made clear to the council, this still hasn't happened`."

http://stv.tv/news/west-central/1352254-council-ordered-to-take-action-over-data-protection-failings/

Big data and predictive analytics

 

"For some parents, the words `Child Protective Services` send chills down the spine. In an effort to stamp out fraud and abuse, welfare outfits across the country have honed in on poor communities of color for decades now, critics claim, with almost any government interaction potentially leading to kids being removed from their homes."

"Now big data is set [to] make the dynamic even more intense—and racially charged."

"In 1999, the foster care population in the United States reached a peak at 567,000. But due to both diminishing budgets and programs aimed at keeping children in their homes, that number dropped to 415,000 by 2014. The representation of black children in the foster system remains disproportionately high, however: Black children account for 24 percent of kids in foster care, while comprising just 14 percent of the general population of children in the US. And a burgeoning method for determining exactly which families get visits from child welfare caseworkers has advocates for low-income families worried the disparity will only get worse."

"The new approach is called `predictive analytics,` and it's taking the child welfare system by storm. Across the country, from suburban counties in Florida to major cities like Los Angeles, child welfare agencies are launching initiatives that take data points like race, parental welfare status, and criminal history, and a variety of other publicly available characteristics, and feed them into an algorithm that assigns each child a `risk` score. That score is then considered when determining whether a caseworker should visit a family."

http://www.vice.com/read/how-child-protection-agencies-are-trying-to-predict-which-parents-will-abuse-kids

Tracking emotions for personalised learning

 

"The race is on to provide students with personalized learning experiences based on their individual emotions, cognitive processes, `mindsets,` and character and personality traits."

"Academic researchers, for example, are busy developing computerized tutoring systems that gather information on students' facial expressions, heart rate, posture, pupil dilation, and more. Those data are then analyzed for signs of student engagement, boredom, or confusion, leading a computer avatar to respond with encouragement, empathy, or maybe a helpful hint."

"`The idea is that emotions have a powerful influence on cognition,` said Sidney D'Mello, an assistant professor of computer science and psychology at the University of Notre Dame, in Indiana. `The increasing power and affordability of eye-tracking, speech-recognition, and other technologies have made it possible for researchers to investigate those connections more widely and deeply`, he said."

"`Ten years ago, there were things you could do in a lab that you couldn't do in the messiness of the real world,` D'Mello said. `Now, you can get a reasonable proxy of a student's heart rate from a webcam.`"

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/01/13/digital-tools-evolving-to-track-students-emotions.html

Who`d be a child in this world ?

Google has been given confidential patient information

29 Apr 2016 at 23:58, Kieren McCarthy

"Google has been given access to huge swathes of confidential patient information in the UK, raising fears yet again over how NHS managers view and handle data under their control."

"In an agreement uncovered by the New Scientist, Google and its DeepMind artificial intelligence wing have been granted access to current and historic patient data at three London hospitals run by the Royal Free NHS Trust, covering 1.6 million individuals."

"That would include any chronic illness people may be suffering from and the circumstances over why they were admitted – for example, if they have suffered a drug overdose. The agreement provides Google with access to data going back five years and is far more expansive than expected."

"Google and DeepMind previously said they were working with the NHS on a product called `Streams` that would `present timely information that helps nurses and doctors detect cases of acute kidney injury.`"

"The agreement however provides access to all patient data, covering issues far beyond just kidney functioning. Google reportedly claimed that since there is not a specific subset of information regarding kidneys, it needed access to everything."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/29/google_given_access_to_reams_of_confidential_patient_information/

GPs, housing officers and charities to spy on families

"The Scottish Government’s `named person` plans will involve recruiting family doctors, housing officers and charities to `spy` on families, campaigners against the legislation have claimed."

"The `No to Named Persons` campaign based its claims on documents produced at meetings held to oversee how the scheme, which will be rolled out across Scotland in August, will be put into practice."

"Every child will have a `named person`, who will act as a single point of contact, with the ability to share information with social and other services if there is cause for concern about the way a child is behaving or being brought up."

"It is being operated as a pilot scheme in several areas of the country including the Highlands, Edinburgh, Fife, Angus and South Ayrshire."

"The documents were for `named person implementation board` meetings, chaired by the children’s minister Aileen Campbell and involving police, civil servants, councils, social workers, health boards, children’s charities and public sector unions."

"The Home Education Forums, which support the No to Named Persons (NO2NP) campaign, have analysed detailed documentation from the board meetings."

"One document suggests that Ms Campbell was keen to involve GPs, even though doctors were reluctant to breach patient confidentiality."

"The document, dated February 2013, said: `Issues with GPs, due to their structures and contracts… The minister was keen that more work with GPs was done to break the barriers."

"Another document mentioned the role that could be played by housing officers. Dated March 2012, it said: `importance of linking in with housing personnel was also raised, as they are often the only ones going into a house`."

"Nearly a year later, another document said: `working with housing was very productive as they had access to information and were supportive`."

"The role that could be played by charities and voluntary groups was discussed in a document dated June 2012."

"Last night, an SNP spokesman said: `We are clear that we want everyone to take responsibility for protecting and promoting children’s well-being.  Most people would view this as a good thing.`" [Out of touch with reality, I think.]

Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/named-person-plan-may-involve-gps-and-housing-officers-1-4113042#ixzz478PJ6jgI

Although they were meant to continue until August 2016, the committee meetings were scrapped after Police Scotland raised concerns about the effects of the Named Person process on high risk children.

 

Getting the data, by any means, seems to have been the priority for the Children`s Minister.

See http://no2np.org/curious-incident-disappearing-expert-committee/

Social worker removed from register for sharing confidential information

"A child protection social worker who used a personal laptop to create documents containing confidential information about families she worked with has been removed from the Welsh social care register."

"A Care Council for Wales fitness-to-practise committee concluded that she had asked another person to type four documents containing sensitive information on a laptop owned by a third person."

"The person believed to have typed the documents, which included names of families and information about their personal problems, subsequently made a complaint to Denbighshire County Council that led to disciplinary action against the social worker."

"The committee agreed with the council that the complaint was maliciously motivated but said that made no difference to the fact that the social worker had deliberately disclosed confidential information..."

"One family, the committee noted, had threatened to sue the local authority over the incident."

"In addition by releasing the information to third parties the social worker risked damaging the council’s relationships with other agencies and professionals, which in turn could have undermined the information sharing that is crucial to child protection work."

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2016/04/27/social-worker-struck-disclosing-details-families-using-personal-laptop/

Opting out of the Every Student Succeeds Act

Here is more about America`s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the resistance mounting against it. It is worth reading for what it tells us about what is coming our way soon and the obstacles to be surmounted.

From Peg With Pen:

"Currently it's Spring of 2016 and we are in the thick of Opt Out."

"Opt out is still surrounded by intense bullying and harassment by school district employees (I anticipate that this will grow unfortunately). But, the good news is that the Opt Out Movement continues to increase in numbers. Opt Out, the People's Movement, grows by the day - and thank god for that because the work ahead of us is daunting. "

"Here’s why. Opt out has been completely co-opted. However, also understand that co-optation is typical when people are attempting to create a revolution. The .01% will co-opt in any way they can in order to gain leverage. They will use pawns to help create co-optation and compromise. These pawns who receive corporate funding will continue to push corporate ideology - which right now means singing the praises of ESSA."

"And the passage of ESSA means that the end of year test eventually could become passé. ESSA is pushing for online, daily testing - testing that is embedded inside online curriculum. Children will now be subjected to online modules in which they must master something before moving on to the next online module. It might be called personalized learning, mastery learning, proficiency-based testing, competency-based education, innovative assessments, and more. ESSA is pushing for these online assessment systems, as is ALEC, and the many foundations and organizations that are hoping to cash in."

"As Stephen Krashen states: Competency-based education is not just a testing program. It is a radical and expensive innovation that replaces regular instruction with computer "modules" that students work through on their own. It is limited to what can be easily taught and tested by computer, and is being pushed by computer and publishing companies that will make substantial profits from it."

"Not only are they pushing for daily online testing and curriculum, they are pushing for people to DROP the end of the year test. Who knew! They support Opt Out!"

"Meanwhile..............."

"Everyone , and their mother, will quietly guide the states and districts to assist them in implementing ESSA state policies - which of course will include daily online testing - via lots of federal cash..."

"Also, be sure to read how the Rockefeller Foundation plans to solve the `youth employment crisis` via competency-based hiring. Never forget that the goal is to gather data from cradle to adulthood. As daily online testing infiltrates the schools there will be more data than ever before - the data will be used to control, manage and direct our children into employment - or prison - in order to benefit the .01%.. Competency based hiring will be made possible due to the data that will morph into micro-credentials or digital badges online. This is already happening - it was planned patiently, methodically, and over years."

Read more http://www.pegwithpen.com/search?updated-min=2016-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2017-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=4

Chris Hedges spoke at the Opt Out conference but the quality of sound is not good.

This video is better.

　
Beginning about 39 minutes, Chris Hedges talks about the growth of the prison population after the Clinton administration.

"The prison system......a microcosm of what our corporate masters are planning for the rest of us... They have the mechanisms by which they can shut down dissent."

Social worker struck off for disclosing confidential information

"A social worker has been struck off after disclosing confidential information about vulnerable children."

"A fitness to practice hearing in Flintshire was told Kirsty Ann Morton's actions had `serious and far-reaching implications`, making removal from the register the only option."

"These included the threat of legal action."

"Ms Morton worked for Denbighshire council when it happened in October 2014, the Care Council for Wales said."

"She had allowed information about four families, including some involved in child protection cases, to be seen by another person, the hearing was told."

"Chairman of the committee Islwyn Jones said Ms Morton had `deliberately` disclosed the information to someone `close to her` whom she felt she could trust."

"`Once the information was released the registrant had no control of it,` he added."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-36084746

We are supposed to believe this will never happen in Scotland, a joined up government and a model for the world ?  Come on....

Scottish Liberal Democrats slammed SNP record on civil liberties

"Nicola Sturgeon wants to extend the NHS central register, which is already the `most complete and authoritative record of individuals in Scotland`."

"It currently covers about 30 per cent of people living north of the Border, but ministers want to extend this and share information stored with more than 100 government agencies - including HMRC for tax purposes."

"A similar population register was ditched south of the Border when controversial and expensive plans for ID cards were scrapped in 2010."

"Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Willie Rennie yesterday slammed the SNP over their record on civil liberties as he set out plans to abandon the Big Brother database and give citizens new rights over private information held by public bodies."

"Ms Sturgeon is also under pressure to scrap the SNP's `state guardians` after two-thirds of Scots judged the scheme to be `an unacceptable intrusion` in a recent poll."

"Only 24 per cent of those surveyed believe every child in the country should be given a named person to look after their welfare."

"The survey for the Christian Institute also found 50 per cent of parents believe the Government wants to interfere too much in family life..."

"Mr Rennie accused the SNP of `eroding our traditional freedoms here in Scotland`."

"He added: `Civil liberties are inalienable rights that need to be protected vigorously. Whether we are talking about the creation of a new Big Brother database that the experts say would put our privacy at risk, the industrial scale use of stop and search on children as young as five years old, the SNP's record does not bear scrutiny.`"

"Liberal Democrats would give citizens new rights to see who within public bodies has accessed their data."

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/664030/Threat-civil-liberties-SNP-Big-Brother-plans-slammed?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-express-news-showbiz+%28Daily+Express+%3A%3A+News+%2F+Showbiz+Feed%29

Knowledge devalued and a reversal of roles

From the USA:

"If SETRA passes in its current form, the federal government will be empowered to expand psychological profiling of our children. Parents must understand this threat so they can mobilize to stop it."

"SETRA is a proposed reauthorization of the Education Sciences Reform Act, which created bureaucracies and funding for education research (the results of which are routinely ignored if they contradict the dogma of the progressive education establishment). But SETRA would go beyond merely wasting money and plunge the government into an area it has no constitutional, statutory, or moral right to invade: the psychological makeup of children."

"Section 132 of SETRA expands authorized research to include `research on social and emotional learning [SEL] . . . .` SEL is defined as `the process through which children . . . acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.`"

"SEL is all the rage in public education. The idea is that imparting academic knowledge is passe’ because if a student wants to know something, he can Google it (seriously – this is a common theme in education circles). Instead, the theory goes, schools should focus more on `non-cognitive` skills to jumpstart education – helping students develop government-approved thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors that will supposedly make them more productive workers."

"In other words, the school will do what the parents should be doing (encourage development of these non-cognitive traits), while the parents do what the school should be doing..."

http://beta.townhall.com/columnists/emmettmcgroarty/2016/04/15/why-does-your-congressman-want-to-psychologically-profile-your-children-n2148674

The same thing is happening in Scotland with Curriculum for Excellence, GIRFEC and the Named Person scheme.

Privacy International opposes Britain`s surveillance state legislation

 

"Britain is sleep-walking into an Orwellian surveillance state, with most of its citizens unaware of or disinterested in the far-reaching implications of the government’s Investigatory Powers (IP) Bill, a new survey suggests."

"A poll conducted by broadband comparison site Broadband Genie reveals the widespread confusion many Brits are experiencing with respect to the soon-to-be-implemented legislation."

"Known to its opponents as the `snoopers’ charter,` the bill will give UK law enforcement bodies unprecedented access to citizens’ online activities."

"It will allow them to force broadband providers such as BT and Virgin to store people’s internet browsing history and hand over this data to the state in the absence of judicial oversight..."

"Privacy International (PI), which specializes in the field of mass surveillance and privacy rights, says the IP Bill will give police deeply intrusive snooping powers, allowing for the installation of malware on citizens’ computers..."

"Such a move would empower UK law enforcement and intelligence agencies to spy on citizens by activating their microphones and webcams. PI also warns the draft legislation would allow UK authorities to remotely gain access to files on citizens’ computers and erode data security on their personal devices, without them knowing..."

"PI has launched a campaign to raise awareness about the implications of the IP Bill. Among the charity's chief concerns, is the argument that police hacking will make citizens less safe because the very technology these people use on a daily basis will become more vulnerable to cybercriminals..."

"We are calling on internet service providers to publicly oppose the bill in its current form."

https://www.rt.com/uk/340411-big-brother-surveillance-state/#.VxhvguSASCw.facebook

Some say the legislation is only about catching up with what has already been happening.