“Councils need all the tools at their disposal to help with locating and preventing future local outbreaks of coronavirus in their communities."
Responding to the Health and Social Care Secretary’s announcement that enhanced level data will be provided to councils’ directors of public health, to help with locating and preventing potential future outbreaks, Cllr Paulette Hamilton, Vice Chair of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“We are pleased the Government has heard our call for patient identifiable data to be provided on a daily basis, alongside other information. This will help give the level of detail needed for councils’ directors of public health and their teams to track down and isolate future flare-ups, to stop them spreading even further.
“Councils need all the tools at their disposal to help with locating and preventing future local outbreaks of coronavirus in their communities. They already have extensive experience of using this type of data across a range of local services, including on how to handle this sensitively and carefully.
“Councils’ public health teams also remain ready to use their unique expertise, including speaking other languages, and understanding of their communities to try to reach those who cannot be contacted by the test and trace system. They need information on who they should be trying to contact, including people who could not be reached by the system itself.
“With the right powers, flexibilities, data and long-term funding, councils can help to manage potential outbreaks and prevent the spread of infection.”
Notes to editors
The LGA represents more than 330 councils of all types across England. We work on behalf of our members to support, promote and improve local government.
It is councils who had led communities through the COVID-19 crisis. Our recent polling shows that 71 per cent of residents trust their council and two thirds are satisfied with the way their local council runs things in their area. Our new discussion paper - Re-thinking Local - sets out how councils must now be empowered to locally-lead the COVID-19 recovery and tackle the economic, environmental and community challenges that we will face as a result of the pandemic.