Scotland’s teachers face being forced to cut the amount of time they spend in the classroom after they take on the duties of filling the SNP’s controversial Named Person scheme, the country’s largest teaching union has warned a Holyrood inquiry.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) said a physics teacher in a deprived area could end up being the Named Person (NP) for more than 200 children and “is likely to have less time available for the teaching of physics than prior to the introduction of the NP service.”

Additional staff will be required to fill in while teachers assess the “wellbeing” of each child, decide whether to share information about them with other agencies and the “wider legal landscape”, the union warned.

Although a draft code of practice has been drawn to help guide Named Persons in their new role, a second teaching union told the inquiry it represented nothing more than “a blatant and cynical attempt at buck-passing, where the focus is on protecting Scottish Ministers from further legal action.”

The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT)claimed the Scottish Government does not know how to make the role comply with a Supreme Court judgement declaring its original plan unlawful, so has made schools and teachers responsible.