Expensive branding draws union’s fire

Health minister Jacqui Smith has revealed the
cost of the logos designed for social care’s three new national
organisations.

In a written answer to a question by
Conservative health spokesperson Liam Fox, Smith said that the logo
for the General Social Care Council, created by Team Saatchi, cost
£16,000, while Butcher & Gundersen’s design for the
incoming National Care Standards Commission cost £12,290.

By stark comparison, the logo for the Social
Care Institute for Excellence was created in-house for the grand
sum of £376.

Owen Davies, national officer for social
services with the trade union Unison (which held a competition for
members to come up with its name) congratulated Scie on its
home-grown approach.

“We are all in favour of in-house labour,”
Davies said. “The less work contracted out the better. As long as
the quality is OK, then that’s fine.”