Sometimes the government just doesn't do itself any favours.
Last week work and pensions secretary James Purnell announced a target of getting a further 200,000 people back into work through Local Employment Partnerships - the scheme where employers join forces with Jobcentre Plus to help 'disadvantaged' jobseekers.
Personnel Today contacted the DWP press office in an attempt to find out the number of employers signed up to the scheme and the number of people that have been placed into work so far.
Not a difficult question you would think, but this is Whitehall press officers we are talking about. First we were told they didn't know, then we were told 30,000 employers had signed up, only for that to be revised to 'about' 18,000.
We eventually prised the figure of 90,000 people hired through LEPs. But five days later a press release arrives which claims more than 100,000 have benefited from the scheme.
Confused? We were. If the government is going to make such a song and dance about its efforts at getting the unemployed back into work, it should at least get its figures right.
