Cheshire and Merseyside Contact Tracing Hub Stakeholder Presentation

Cheshire and Merseyside Contact Tracing Hub Stakeholder Presentation Last updated – December 2020

Agenda • Introduction to Cheshire and Merseyside’s Contact Tracing Hub for Complex Cases and Settings • The organisations that are involved • The benefits • How the Hub team works – both in principle and in practice • How the Hub team is enabled • Our priorities

Introduction This year has shown that effective contact tracing is critical when managing the spread of COVID-19 Simply, it is the process of identifying, assessing, and managing people who have been exposed to a disease to prevent onward transmission It is a specialism in its own right and can involve hours of investigative work

Introduction When the subject or situation of contact tracing is complicated, it can be much more difficult and requires more intensive and local interventions That’s why a Contact Tracing Hub for Complex Cases and Settings has been developed in Cheshire and Merseyside The purpose of the Hub is to bolster local resilience and ensure a safe and effective system

About the Hub The Hub is a shared collaborative contact tracing team that works across Cheshire and Merseyside It is all about scaling up existing arrangements and bolstering the local system to support those who have tested positive and keep the rate of infection down Because of its collaborative nature, it is not owned or managed by any one organisation or agency It is also not a commissioned service or a replacement for any national Test and Trace programmes

Who is involved

Benefits Sub-regional and local intelligence People who live in the area know and understand Cheshire and Merseyside better than a team of national contact tracers. Efficiency The Hub is more agile and can act faster when data becomes available, as with contact tracing and outbreak management, the sooner action is taken the better. Leadership Cheshire and Merseyside’s Directors of Public Health provide strategic leadership, meaning that areas of concentration can be quickly identified and opportunities for collaboration across the region can be actioned quickly. Directors have developed a collaborative outbreak management framework.

What is a complex setting or case? Potentially complex settings Special Educational Needs Schools, social care settings, homeless accommodation, domestic violence refuges, residential children’s homes Potentially complex cohorts Rough sleepers, faith communities, asylum seekers, etc. Potentially complex individuals and households Safeguarding issues, clinically shielded, learning disabilities, diagnosed mental illness, substance misusers, etc. Potentially complex workplaces Food production plants and warehouses

The Hub team 4 Team Leaders 4 Call Handlers Outsourced Analysts (CSU) 26 Contact Tracers 7 days a week, 9 am 5 pm 4 Business Support

How the Hub team works The Hub team receive information via the national Test and Trace service, local authorities and other local contacts relating to a positive case of COVID-19 that is either complex in regard to the individual or the setting These positive cases are then triaged by Public Health England the Hub team works with the individual or setting This happens quickly, minimising the chance of wide transmission of the disease in local communities.

Enabling the Hub team Contact Tracing Mobilisation Team The team came together in June this year to quickly stand up the Hub at pace. Included stakeholders from Public Health England, local authorities and the Champs Support Team. The Hub was stood up and functioning in six weeks!

Enabling the Hub team Contact Tracing Strategic Programme Board Recently established, this partnership group meets monthly to provide strategic leadership and oversight for all elements of contact tracing in Cheshire and Merseyside. This extends beyond the Hub aims to also support local teams, as well as provide assurance to Directors of Public Health around contact tracing. Co-chair Julie Webster Director of Public Health for Wirral Co-chair Sam Ghebrehewet Head of Health Protection for Public Health England North West

Key priorities Evaluation Working with colleagues to establish an evaluation framework that will take account a range of perspectives Developing the Hub team and local authority teams to deliver high quality contact tracing Development and innovation Coordination and local integration Exploring the possibility of two new Coordinator roles – one for Liverpool City Region and for Cheshire and Warrington to improve local integration Working collaboratively to develop an integrated approach to contact tracing across Cheshire and Merseyside – workshop next week Stakeholder engagement Shared data system Implementing a new Content Management System (CMS) from Microsoft Dynamics Training Keeping our partners up to date with stakeholder briefs and engagement sessions, underpinned by a communications and engagement plan

How to contact the Hub team To find out more about the Contact Tracing Hub, please contact the Champs Support Team by emailing champscommunications@wirral. gov. uk. To refer a complex case or setting to the Hub team, please email cmcthub@phe. gov. uk. The inbox is monitored Monday to Sunday, 9 am to 5 pm.