Bill for care.data fiasco tops £1.3m

The final bill for NHS England’s bungled marketing campaign to raise awareness of the care.data programme has been revealed as just over £1.3m, with a litany of suppliers, caterers and even travel firms getting in on the act.
According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Computing.co.uk, £926,778 was allocated to the Leaflet Company, while £308,491 was paid to print firm Williams Lea, and £45,504 went to Promotional Logistics.
Other suppliers paid included stop-motion animation firm Matinai (£16,620), market research company BDRC Continental (£14,325), travel management firm Redfern Travel (£5,530) and production company AV Network (£4,140). Meanwhile, Northern Ballet was paid £1,065.30 for the hire of a meeting room and even the Plain English Campaign got a slice, pocketing £200, presumably to ensure the leaflet was in English. Some £174.90 worth of refreshments were provided by Rosemary & Thyme Catering.
The campaign sparked major criticism within the DM industry, with one source saying: “I don’t know why the door-to-door industry is getting the blame. For a start the creative is crap. It’s got about as much cut-through as a butter knife.
“If anything, it looks like an advert for a care home, rather than for one of the most important public information campaigns in recent years. And let’s be fair, if you want to stand out among the other unaddressed communications, you have to work much harder.”
The uproar ultimately led to a six-month delay of the programme, and NHS England has pledged to launch what it calls “a sizeable programme of activity” to properly explain the benefits of the care.data programme, after conceding that its previous attempt at a consumer campaign had failed.

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