AS you read this, up and down Scotland – in schools, councils, health boards and social work departments – preparations are being made to impose a ‘named person’ on every single child in the country.

As policies go, this is about as sweeping as it gets.

Just to be clear, from next August each and every person in Scotland, from birth to age 18, will be assigned an official monitor responsible to the Scottish state.

It doesn’t matter whether parents want this or not.

It doesn’t matter whether young people want this or not (even those 16 and over – the age at which you can marry, have a child and, now, vote in next year’s Scottish Parliament elections).

The Scottish Government, in its infinite wisdom, has decreed it so.

All this is tremendously frustrating, for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, the Scottish Conservatives believe it is wrong to impose a named person – without prior consent – on the vast majority of normal, loving, law-abiding families.

As it stands, the policy will see vast amounts of information pass across a named person’s desk.

Much of this information will be private and will be imparted without parents having any say whatsoever.

This is wrong.

It undermines the right to a private family life and is a charter for prying eyes.

Secondly - and more importantly - this policy risks diverting resources away from truly vulnerable children; those who need the support most.

According to the SNP this new scheme, designed to cover every child and young person in Scotland, will not cost an extra penny.

It will be, in government speak, “revenue neutral”.

Even if you take this at face value, the training required, the additional paperwork involved, the sheer time demands will stretch those tasked with delivery.

And as these happen to be schools, police, health boards and local authorities – in other words services already under strain – it is easy to see why professionals fear the named person scheme will become a bureaucratic black hole – sucking up valuable time and draining resources.

Then there are the practicalities.

Last week it emerged that the SNP has secretly scrapped the group tasked with overseeing the implementation of the plans.

Why, we do not know.

And this is before the deeply worrying case that has emerged in Elgin – where a named person (who was involved in a pilot scheme) has been convicted of child sex offences and placed on the sex offenders register.

Enough is enough.

Instead of ploughing on regardless, the SNP needs to pause, take stock and re-think these misguided plans.

Opposition to the policy is growing.

A court case brought by concerned parents may have failed, but an appeal is being considered and those in the NO2NP campaign are determined to fight this legislation every step of the way.

For our part, the Scottish Conservatives will not let this matter drop either.

We will use our opposition party business to bring this matter to the floor of the Scottish Parliament today and we will keep on making the case that the named person plans are deeply flawed.

My postbag is full of letters from concerned, fearful and deeply angry parents.

And I can see why they feel that way.

This policy might be have been designed with the best of intentions, but parents, professionals and police are far from convinced that it is going to help.

The Scottish Government has got this one wrong. It’s time for Nicola Sturgeon to admit as much.