• Claim from unions that there is no effective test and trace system in place debunked at daily briefing
• R-number quoted by Union is confirmed by council officer as being misleading
• Still, Labour continues to strongly advise schools not to open and will not listen to the science

Conservative Spokesperson on Health and Wellbeing Samer Bagaeen has said that another of the arguments used by the Unions and Labour administration to halt the reopening of schools in Brighton and Hove has been debunked.

Labour and the Unions have used concerns about a test and trace system as one of its main reasons for advising schools not to open as per the government’s advice, saying in a joint statement from four unions that a track and trace system was not ‘properly in place’:

Four unions issued a joint statement saying:  “The government has confirmed it will proceed with opening primary schools to children in nursery, reception, year 1 and year 6 on Monday 1 June even though its own scientists have not modelled the proposal and average numbers of new daily cases are still high – and despite the ‘track and trace’ system not being properly in place – Brighton and Hove News 1 June 2020

This has also been used by the Labour administration and used in advice to Headteachers in Brighton & Hove, urging them not to reopen:

In particular we are not confident that the test around effective testing and tracing is currently met given the very recent introduction of the government’s Test and Trace programme especially in a city with a high visitor footfall such as ours. – Chair of Children, Young People and Skills Committee Cllr John Allcock, BHCC Press release 29 May 2020 and included in letter to Headteachers from Labour Administration, 29 May 2020.

However at the Daily Briefing yesterday, the National Coordinator of the UK Coronavirus (COVID-19) Testing Programme Professor John Newton said that the test and trace system was indeed up and running with 25,000 contact tracers employed including 7,500 clinicians, with the system working well with significant spare capacity.

Cllr Bagaeen said that the arguments being used by Labour and the Unions to keep schools closed in Brighton & Hove were beginning to be exposed as having little scientific foundation.

“It is clear day by day that the arguments still being used by Labour and the Unions and being communicated to parents and headteachers in the City are misleading” he said.

“First the Unions said that the R-number was too high but this statistic has been confirmed as misleading in the advice circulated by the Council’s Public Health Director Alistair Hill today, when he said:

“We have very serious concerns about the deckzero.com website's information about the R number.

Quite simply, the alleged statistics they are using are misleading and potentially dangerous in terms of giving either false reassurance or creating unnecessary concerns.” - Alistair Hill, director of public health for Brighton & Hove City Council, BHCC Press release - Facts about Covid19 data for the city – setting the record straight 1 June 2020

“Now the argument that there is no proper track and trace system available has been proven incorrect.

“At the daily briefing yesterday it was confirmed that:

• 25,000 contact tracers have been hired.  With the Incidence of disease coming down there is more capacity than needed with some contact tracers having little to do.

• Test and trace is working well with data flowing from the testing portal into the contact tracing software and the contacts are being identified.

• The system is operational at 3 levels with plenty of cases and contacts being reported and being pursued in all 3 of those areas.
  • Clinical public health level – looks at more complicated cases such as those occurring in care homes or outbreaks
  • Cases where individuals can enter own details into the portal
  • Those that need to be contacted by the contact tracers

• The system has a lot of capacity.  With 1570 new cases (yesterday) and so with 7,500 clinicians employed this means that for each new case there are over 6 clinicians able to support them.

“The basis of Labour’s claims for keeping Brighton & Hove schools closed is increasingly looking shaky and misleading” Cllr Bagaeen said.

“Still they listen to the unions and refuse to adjust their position based on the science.

“Every day Labour delays reopening schools is another day that inequality increases in Brighton & Hove’s education system” he said.

ENDS.