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.
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?