Puffbox

A parliamentary question has revealed that, in the year to the end of January 2010, the Department of Health spent £2.72 million on Google Adwords pay-per-click keyword advertising. A big number, but a fair one? With Google's Adwords advertising, you only pay on results. An advert is displayed at the top, or down the side of [...] read on »

One of my longest-running projects has been the consultation around Care and Support, and the creation of a National Care Service. It's been a huge engagement process on many fronts, moving through numerous phases - and the website has reflected that, with frequent changes, additions and updates. The latest enhancement went live last week - and [...] read on »

One of my bigger projects this year has been the website for the Care And Support green paper, aka The Big Care Debate. Basically, the country is in desperate need of a new funding model for long-term care of the elderly and disabled: and in July, three funding options were put forward for consideration. And [...] read on »

You'll be seeing a lot of the Change 4 Life brand, and the associated bright Morph-esque characters whose aim in life is to tackle the growing problem of obesity. But whatever you do, don't call it a government campaign, though - it's a 'society-wide movement'. Which essentially means, it'll be everywhere: online and offline. I'm almost [...] read on »

I see today that Capita has been named as the preferred bidder for the £60m+ contract to run the NHS Choices website for the next 3 years - ahead of the incumbent, the Dr Foster Intelligence public-private partnership, as well as IBM, Serco and TATA. According to Capita's own press release: Capita will be responsible for the [...] read on »

The new Department of Health site is a definite improvement; the previous incarnation looked like it had been designed primarily by the technical side (which, indeed, it had). Now it's all colourful boxes with rounded corners and shaded colourings, and it's all the better for it. All this without breaking links, apparently. Well done to them [...] read on »