THE North's regional daily, the P&J, have accepted, if a little grudgingly, that their account of the HMI Report on Fliperz childcare centre was “slightly unfair”.
Following the article, published on 7th September, Merkinch Enterprise Chief Executive Colin Downie wrote complaining about the paper's misinterpretation of what was a “very good” Report and the misleading tone of the article. In a letter to the newspaper, he pointed out that the HMI Report had four levels of assessment: Very good, Good, Fair, and Unsatisfactory. Fliperz had been deemed “Very Good” 10 times, and “Good” on seven occasions. The words “Fair” or “Unsatisfactory” did not appear anywhere in the HMI report.

The HMI comment that the centre's accommodation was “good overall, though with limited provision for large energetic play” was interpreted by the P&J article as “despite poor accommodation”. The article had also interpreted the HMI comment “although play sessions were well organised, some of them went on too long” as “the playgroup lacks structure”. Hardly the same, said Mr Downie.
“Merkinch suffers many problems and it does not help the community when the P&J jumps on any excuse to pull the people and the area down,” he added.

Aberdeen-based Deputy Editor Kay Drummond replied: “While our report was not factually incorrect (other than the unfortunate mis-spelling of the name of the current manageress) it does appear to have been slightly unfair to the centre and taken several points out of context.”

To “help rectify the matter” Kay Drummond agreed to publish his complaints in the form of a letter to the Editor which was done.
Mr Downie said that the negative slant of the P&J's article was in clear contrast to the much more balanced and accurate article on the HMI Report in the Inverness Courier.