Contact tracers to knock on doors
Tracking system overhauled as call centres reach fewer than half of people at risk
THE “failing” test and trace system will be scaled back under plans to replace thousands of call centre workers with council staff knocking on doors.
It follows warnings that the service is now reaching fewer than half of the contacts of those who test positive for Covid-19, despite Boris Johnson promising in May that Britain would have “a test, track and trace operation that will be world-beating” by June 1.
On average, those working for the call centres reach just one case a month, research shows.
Councils warned that many of those being called reject attempts to contact them because they assume the unfamiliar “0300” number is a cold caller.
Those working at call centres run by Serco and Sitel have said the job was akin to being “paid to watch Netflix”.
Under the overhaul, around 6,000 of the 18,000 call handlers will be taken off the job. Instead, councils will be encouraged to send their own workers out to chase up contacts of infected cases who fail to respond to calls.
Earlier this month, Sandwell council in the West Midlands said it was setting up its own system. Lisa Mcnally, the council’s public health director, said it was contacting cases as soon as they came in, “rather than waiting for test and trace to fail to reach them”.
The changes follow warnings that the safe reopening of schools next month depends on improving the performance of test and trace.
Research by the Independent Sage group of scientists suggested that the test and trace workforce of 25,000 staff – including around 7,000 clinical case workers and health protection staff – reached fewer than 52,000 close contacts of Covid cases in two months. Independent Sage said: “The centralised privatised contact tracing system is not working, not improving and is fundamentally the wrong design with some localities setting up their own local test, trace and isolation systems.”
Under the new system, local workers will track down anyone who cannot be reached by the national call centres after 48 hours to tell them to self-isolate.
Councils will be given “dedicated ring-fenced teams” from the national service to help with local tracing.
Last week, Blackburn with Darwen council followed Sandwell in sending out its own staff amid frustration at failings in the national system.
Leicester and Luton also tried similar approaches to engage with those who were not responding to calls.
Baroness Harding, the NHS Test and Trace chairman, yesterday said the moves followed “successful trials in a small number of local areas”.
Dominic Harrison, the Blackburn with Darwen public health director, suggested the council was frustrated with the national system. He said: “We are developing our own system. The national system is simply not tracing enough cases and contacts fast enough.”
Last week, a study suggested that reopening schools without an improvement in the reach of “test and
trace” could cause a second wave more than twice the size of the first peak.
The study by University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine simulated how the disease might spread when schools open in September. It found that if test and trace was more successful – so that 68 per cent of contacts of positive cases were traced – the spread of disease could be held in check.
Since then, however, test and trace’s performance has deteriorated further, reaching just 46 per cent of contacts in the week ending July 29.
The Department of Health said the new approach was a “partnership” with Public Health England and local authorities.
Baroness Harding said: “We have always been clear that NHS Test and Trace must be local by default and that we do not operate alone – we work with and through partners across the country. As we learn more about the spread of the disease, we are able to move to our planned next step and become even more effective in tackling the virus.”
Justin Madders, the shadow health minister, welcomed the additional support for local authorities, but said it was “clear Boris Johnson’s £10billion centralised contact tracing system is nowhere near ‘world-beating’ as he claims and the system is unable to fight local outbreaks successfully”.
Keith Neal, emeritus professor in the epidemiology of infectious diseases at the University of Nottingham, said: “The biggest issue has been that 20-25 per cent of cases have not been contactable. Allowing local authorities to chase up will ensure more are contacted. Visiting houses will help but there is no mention as to what they will do if they are not isolating for 10 days as they should be.”