Test and trace in England – progress update

To continue to improve test and trace performance and give NHST&T and its successor bodies the best chance of securing their intended impact: a) The Department, through NHST&T, and UKHSA if responsible, should, by the end of July 2021, develop and agree with its partners a clear strategy for integrated national and local service delivery once England is no longer in lockdown. This should set out the operational barriers faced by all partners (including access to data, funding, scalability, workforce and public compliance) and responsibilities and timetable for addressing them.

b) The Department and UKHSA should, by the end of December 2021, assess what standing capacity and infrastructure needs to be retained from NHST&T for future emergency responses, alongside plans for how this could be scaled up and down as needed, setting out clearly the roles of national and local bodies in providing standing and additional capacity.

c) As overall speed, reach and levels of public compliance still constrain the effectiveness of the test and trace approach, by October 2021, the Department, through NHST&T and working with relevant delivery partners, must set out plans for improving and monitoring the overall process for these areas, and which national and local bodies are responsible. In particular, it should address how government can best support and encourage citizens in coming forward for tests, and complying with self-isolation requirements. This could encompass further process improvement and redesign, public health messaging, financial or practical support, or other levers available to national and local bodies.

d) The Department, through NHST&T, should fill gaps in its data and make full use of this information to identify which groups are not engaging with the system at each stage and why. It should, by October 2021, publish its assessment of differential engagement with each stage of the process, the reasons for it and plans to address it.

e) The Department, through NHST&T, and UKHSA if responsible, should agree with NHS England and NHS Improvement whether and how the laboratory capacity built up for COVID-19 tests will be used by the NHS. It should publish by March 2022 a plan for this legacy, including details of who will own the laboratories or contracts, and how flexibility arrangements will work to allow them to be diverted to COVID-19 or other urgent testing.

f) NHST&T, and in due course UKHSA, should provide regular assurance to its board and other stakeholders about how it plans to deliver the £2.9 billion of efficiency savings required in 2021-22 and manage the other £3.4 billion of financial risk. This should distinguish between savings from reduced volumes and efficiency savings.