Ministers spent tens of thousands of pounds on mugs and pens to promote a controversial new children’s database, it was revealed today.
Teachers’ leaders accused the government of squandering £61,000 on the materials for ContactPoint, a multimillion pound register holding personal details of millions of children across England.
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I’ve often wondered where the name “ContactPoint” came from. It replaced previous names for the database such as “Information, Referral and Tracking” (IRT) and “Information Index”. “ContactPoint” is actually quite a good name for a state surveillance system, because it sounds helpful and friendly. It sounds like the name of a coffee bar or a dating service. Did some-one in the DCSF think it up or is the name the product of some overpaid public relations consultants?
It was rebranded in Feb 2007 (see: https://archrights.wordpress.com/2007/02/17/is-index-re-brand/ ) I’ve just been looking for the letter making the announcement, which is buried in my computer somewhere. Basically, it said that the new name was to counteract negative publicity. I wonder how much the rebrand and logo cost?