John Swinney told BBC radio this morning that he was considering removing 16 to 18-year-olds from the scheme, something the Scottish Conservatives have urged him to do from the outset.
But while he said he would “certainly give consideration” to the idea, shadow education secretary Liz Smith has warned he will have to go much further than simply making “tweaks”.
And following the concession, it is hoped this will just be the beginning of a process which, the Scottish Conservatives said, should lead to the scrapping of state guardians altogether.
Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have now changed their mind on named person, appearing to express opposition to the proposals, despite repeatedly rejecting Scottish Conservative moves to either drop or pause the hated scheme.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled elements of named person were unlawful, a ruling which has delayed its roll out.
Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith said:
“We welcome the fact that John Swinney now seems to be prepared to remove 16 to 18-year-olds from the named person policy.
“This could have happened three years ago if the SNP had not dismissed Scottish Conservative amendments to the legislation out of hand.
“However, the Supreme Court ruling makes plain that there are far more problems with the policy than just this.
“At the heart of it is the single point of contact and the information sharing that would necessarily accompany that.
“On the latter point, the policy has been judged to be unlawful.
“Making tweaks to the legislation will not solve the problem.
“The comments over the last few days from Labour and the Liberal Democrats make it very clear that political support as well as public support is draining away fast.
“If the SNP was really listening, it would scrap the whole thing.”