Local Contact Tracing — 14 Oct 2020 at 18:51

That this House notes the consistently high performance of local contact tracing systems when compared with the centralised system established by the Government; notes the wealth of evidence that the considerable sums of public money spent so far on the national system would deliver better public health outcomes if devolved to local authorities and public health experts; and calls on the Government to extend the additional funding for contact tracing available in Tier 3 areas to all parts of the country and ensure that councils and local public health teams receive the resources and powers they require.

“It needs someone with the courage to say”

“catastrophe…the very worst system I’ve…seen”.

“relatively low levels of engagement with the system…coupled with testing delays…is having a marginal impact on transmission”.

“I couldn’t believe it when I got my bonus. It’s an absolute disgrace…I’m getting paid and now given a bonus for doing nothing…I really want to help and be involved and make calls and be useful. But I’m not being given anything to do. The system is on its knees.”

“Critical elements of the implementation of contact tracing are community engagement and public support”.

“bound to be better than Whitehall or national contact tracers.”

“Council leaders in many regions have been relying on volunteers but this cannot continue. It can’t be done on the cheap-councils have to be given more resources to employ expanded, trained teams.”

“working in conjunction with NHS Test and Trace; welcomes the huge expansion of testing to a capacity of over 340,000 tests a day; applauds the efforts of all involved in testing and contact tracing both at a national and local level; recognises that 650,000 people have now been asked to isolate thanks to the work of NHS Test and Trace, and supports the Government’s efforts to expand testing and tracing yet further.”.

“Local action has proved to be one of our most important lines of defence.”-[Official Report, 13 October 2020; Vol. 682, c. 198.]

“supports the need to implement, at scale, a contact tracing programme. No single organisation or agency, whether national or local, can design and oversee this operation alone. The success of contact tracing will depend on a truly integrated approach between national and local government and a range of other partners across the UK.”

“to enable targeting of known or emerging points of transmission.”

“relatively low levels of engagement”

“marginal impact”.

Debate in Parliament |