Recommendation 11

For tracing, the Department accepted that, with hindsight, it did not need to scale up central tracing services for May 2020 as quickly as it did. It highlighted the very uncertain environment in April and May and the limited basis it had for estimating the numbers of people it would need to contact and trace.37 For example, the Department initially assumed that on average each person would have 10–30 contacts to trace, but by June the actual average was 2.4.38 The Department did not have any flexibility to change the level of tracing staff for the first three months, but did include break and review points in the contracts. Following this, from August, it built more flexibility into the contracts and reduced the levels of central call handlers it had contracted for. However, even through to October 2020, utilisation rates of central call handlers remained well below the target utilisation rate of 50%, and as low as 1% in August.39 Use of contractors and consultants