Thursday, May 10, 2007

Patricia Hewitt's mathematical inconsistencies?

Apparently, Patrica Hewitt has just announced, sorry "hailed" £2m of spending to increase access to therapy for people suffering from anxiety and depression. This is following the "success of the psychological therapies pilot programme in Doncaster and Newham". Not surprising people in Newham needed therapy, they all support West Ham.

Anyway, joking aside about Iain's beloved team, the extra whopping £2 million is going to ten new pathfinder projects. Split that down and it's peanuts really, and as the Culture Secretary said, £100m is not really alot, so £2m must be nothing by even their own standards.

However, it gets more amusing when you look at the Notes to Editor section of the press release. Point 2 says,
The pilots will provide real evidence of the benefits that can be gained from increasing access to psychological therapies, both to the individual and to the local economy. The first two pilot demonstration sites were given £3.7 million funding over two years from the Department of Health.
So, two pilots received £3.7m over two years, now ten more pilots are going to share £2m. It's not difficult to spot some strange mathematical inconsistencies going on there. Factor in inflation and they're getting even less.

The question arises though, if we accept the first two pilots were a success, and if we accept that the new spending, sorry, it's called investment now, is correct. Where did the extra money in the first two pilots go? Or maybe this is actually a notional cut being spun as an increase?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder just how many cases of anxiety and depression are caused directly by the corrupt policies of New Labour. I for one have had my life destroyed by them and I can prove it. However, I can’t get legal help to resolve it and I can’t get medical help to live with it. It’s only a matter of time before it all ends in a very messy way.

haddock said...

I thought that pilot schemes were to test the theory before putting a lot of resources into an overall introduction.
I am obviously wrong as "The pilots will provide real evidence of the benefits that can be gained."
self confidence is a great virtue.

Chris Paul said...

Let me guess. The pathfinder areas tried out quite a lot of projects and not just one each? Having rejected some interesting but poor VFM methods they are able to recommend something effective and inexpensive to roll out? Isn't this - assuming I'm right, I am only guessing - what pilot's and pathfinders are about?

Anonymous said...

What comes after a pathfinder?