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Scottish housing association workers to become part of coronavirus test-and-trace system
Housing association workers in Aberdeen are set to become part of a local coronavirus test-and-trace scheme, with the potential for the initiative to be rolled out more widely across the country.
Grampian Housing Association is partnering with NHS Grampian to offer staff as volunteers for its coronavirus tracing system.
The initiative will involve housing association staff speaking to people who have tested positive for coronavirus, calling all people they have made contact with and providing information back to the NHS.
Neil Clapperton, chief executive of Grampian Housing, told Inside Housing: “Housing associations are, in my view, unique in terms of the third sector.
“We have assets, resources and a skill set amongst staff that is perfect for this sort of role and this sort of collaboration.”
Grampian, which has furloughed a quarter of its staff in response to coronavirus, will be asking furloughed employees to participate in the scheme. It is considering donating the time of those who are still working.
Online training will begin this week and protocols are being drawn up around data-handling, alongside a list of frequently asked questions.
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Mr Clapperton said he hopes the scheme can be rolled out more widely across Scotland.
He said: “If you’re looking at a national strategy the wonderful thing about housing associations is they’re everywhere… so if you’re thinking about how a collaboration might work, it will not be a postcode lottery – there will be adequate resources covering all communities.”
Sally Thomas, chief executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, told Inside Housing that discussions are starting to take place about how the housing sector can be part of the Scottish government’s test-and-trace strategy.
She said: “We want to make sure that we can work with Public Health Scotland and the government to play a key role in the contact tracing programme…
“These are very much ideas at the moment and we’ve got to see what the government’s programme looks like and how we can support and assist with that.
“Our goal is not to lead on this or propose how it might work overall but at local level to try and provide the resource or the help necessary to make sure it works to best effect at local level.”
Ms Thomas added: “We are concerned about making sure that the communities that landlords and social housing landlords are responsible for are given primary priority in the testing and tracing programme because they are the most vulnerable communities in the country and transmission in those communities is more likely than others.”
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The ‘test, trace, isolate’ [TTI] approach is one of the public health measures we will be using to help keep rates of transmission low as we transition out of lockdown.
“Much has already been done to increase Scotland’s testing capacity and we continue to work hard to expand this further to support a move to TTI.
“We are working closely with Public Health Scotland to build capacity at a local level, drawing on existing expertise and to ensure we have the digital infrastructure in place to support these local teams.”
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