Case studies

Faced with high rates of infection in the summer, Calderdale developed a local contact tracing service in partnership with and as part of NHS Test and Trace, which went live in the middle of August.

Hertfordshire is home to nearly 1.2 million people. It has had relatively low rates of infection, but like many areas saw cases start to climb quite significantly in the autumn.

Leicester never really left lockdown. In late June it had the highest rate of positive cases in the country so just before the re-opening of restaurants, bars and hairdressers on 4 July it was announced the city was to go in reverse.

From the start of October, Liverpool council went live with a more enhanced version of contact tracing. The national team started passing down cases after 24 hours and Liverpool’s contact tracers were given access to the CTAS recording system.

Newham launched its contact tracing service at the beginning of September. Environmental health officers have staffed the service, which has been run from Monday to Friday.

A community contact tracing service was launched in Norfolk at the start of September. It is run in partnership between the county council and districts.

Oxfordshire worked with Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace to launch its local contact tracing service in mid October. A team of 14 call handlers drawn from Cherwell District Council and the county council provide contact tracing on behalf of all the districts.

In many two tier areas, Preston County Council has taken the lead on setting up local contact tracing teams. Often they host the contact tracers, leaving the districts to do the home visits. This case study is part of a series on local contact tracing.

“Test and Trace had given us a good start but we really believe in the value of contact tracing and wanted to maximise the number of local people it reached. We felt we could make a difference."

Sheffield’s contact tracing service went live in the middle of October. It is staffed by a team of 12 dedicated contact tracers who work seven days a week – although the hours are shorter at the weekends.