Connecting for Health has spent almost £3.4m on PR and Communications since 1 April 2005, health minister Ben Bradshaw has revealed.
Shadow health secretary, Stephen O’Brien challenged the minister to reveal the figures last week, asking how much CfH have paid for the services of Good Relations to handle their communications and which other communications agencies CfH pay for their services.
Bradshaw admitted that the agency has spent a total of £3,390,858 on communications with the Good Relations, Fishburn Hedges and Porter Novelli agencies – with the latter two claiming the lion’s share. It is unclear if they are still working with CfH at present.
“Payments to the Good Relations agency for services provided to NHS Connecting for Health from 1 April 2005, when NHS Connecting for Health came into being, to 26 September 2007, total £509,263 including VAT.
“NHS Connecting for Health also holds, or has held, contacts with Fishburn Hedges, and with Porter Novelli, payments to whom, over the same period, total £2,881,595 including VAT.”
The expenditure is in addition to the considerable in-house communications team that CfH has directly employed.
However, Bradshaw defended the expenditure, claiming the communications help to ensure that the public and stakeholders are fully informed of progress made in the National Programme for IT.
“NHS Connecting for Health recognises the need for clear and accurate communications with the public and other stakeholder groups, including national health service staff. A key priority for successful implementation of an effective, national information technology system—a central plank of national health service modernisation—is to ensure that the public and stakeholders are fully informed and have an awareness and understanding of the benefits.
“The agencies concerned were appointed to assist in this important communication process and to produce supporting materials. The contracts have delivered value for money. Examples of outputs include videos to explain the new systems and services; exhibition stands and an outdoor exhibition trailer to support face-to-face engagement; millions of copies of associated guidance material, posters and information packs for NHS staff and patients.”
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Joe Fernandez