In a dramatic U-turn, Kezia Dugdale has called for the pause button to be hit on the Scottish Government’s controversial State guardian scheme.

The Scottish Labour leader now says she thinks there should be an independent review, telling the Scottish Daily Mail: “a Labour government will pause the process and ask the Children’s Commissioner to carry out a full review”.

Ms Dugdale also hit out at the failure of the Scottish Government in communicating the policy saying “this whole process has been an absolute mess”.

The proposals for State guardians were approved back in 2014 with backing from Scottish Labour.

However since then, the proposals have drawn criticism from all across Scotland with parents, teachers, healthcare professionals, lawyers and others concerned by the plans.

A recent poll, commissioned by the Christian Institute revealed almost 2/3rds of Scots think the Named Person scheme is an unacceptable intrusion into family life.

There has also been considerable confusion over whether or not parents can opt-out with contradictory information coming from the First Minister and the Scottish Government.

CARE for Scotland’s Parliamentary Officer Dr Gordon Macdonald said it was time the Scottish Government “started a meaningful dialogue with opponents of the state guardian plans rather than simply digging their heels in and imposing it on families across Scotland”.

CARE is part of a coalition of charities who are challenging the Named Person plan. To find out more about the NO2NP campaign, see here.