The Department highlighted “the excellent work” within the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) as an example of “that deepening of the connection with local government”.28 In June 2020, DHSC created the Social Care Sector COVID-19 Support Taskforce to oversee the delivery of two packages of support for the care sector as well as support the government’s work on community outbreaks and consider how to reduce the risk of infection in care homes and the wider social care sector. The Taskforce was chaired by an individual with substantial operational experience as the former President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and drew members from across the sector. In September 2020, the Taskforce published its report setting out progress and learning from the first phase of the pandemic and recommendations to help improve resilience in the sector. As part of this, it recommended that DHSC “significantly boosts its own expertise and capacity in relation to social care”, to continue beyond the pandemic, and used this expertise to link effectively with regional and local structures. This included bringing in senior local authority figures with experience within social care and public health.29