Contact Tracer Jobs in United Kingdom
OVERVIEW
Health secretary Matt Hancock announced potential hiring of 18000 contact tracers on April 30 just before the NHS contact tracing app's live date in its testing phase on May 5. By the last week of May, Prime Minister Boris Johnson doubled this figure to 25000.
Aimed at identifying and tracing people who have come in contact with Covid-19 patients, contact tracer jobs have become a common part of job listings.
JOB DESCRIPTION
3000 out of the 18000 contact tracing roles will be advertised as "Clinical Contact Caseworkers" with a Clinician Band level 6 or higher. These will be skilled health professionals with additional responsibilities as compared to the other
contact tracers.
Depending on the advertising body, the job can be a full-time, part-time, or contact-based.
As a contact tracer in the United Kingdom, the employee will get in touch with Covid-19 positive patients on the phone and conduct an initial assessment of the people they got in contact with.
Then, depending on whether the person is asymptomatic or symptomatic, they will offer public health advice and direct them to appropriate public health individuals accordingly. They will also conduct a periodic public health risk assessment. The employee will work within agreed guidance and recognized procedures, scripts, and structures with due support.
The employee will be expected to solve problems, prioritize their work, and work independently in most scenarios and escalate more complex cases to the higher authorities.
Some of these jobs advertised as test and trace team leaders will demand additional responsibilities such as managing a team of call handlers, leading and supporting them in their day-to-day activities, briefing shift-staff, and managing their timely handovers, and managing escalated issues between tiers of the contact tracing delivery model.
Contact tracers will have to work with the NHS coronavirus app, which is currently undergoing a trial on the Isle of Wight but is expected to be rolled out nationally soon.
ELIGIBILITY & REQUIREMENTS
For Clinical Contact Caseworkers, Clinical Band level 6 or higher is mandatory.
For contact tracers, excellent communication skills and telephone mannerisms, the ability to think critically, work under pressure are mandatory requirements. Since this will be a work-from-home online job, proficiency in Microsoft products, electronic systems, and databases is also a must.
For test and trace team lead, Senior Clinician at a managerial level with a health or science-related degree or demonstrable equivalent experience is preferable. Senior clinicians with team management experience are also welcomed. The applicant should be registered with a professional body of state/national level relevance.
UK CONTACT TRACER SALARY
Clinical Contact Caseworkers are paid anywhere between £16.97 to £27.15 per hour.
Other contact tracers are paid £9.42 per hour.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
The NHS has started advertising "Clinical Contact Caseworker" profiles from the first week of May on sites such as Reed.
Other contact tracing jobs in the United Kingdom can be found on job listing websites such as Indeed and LinkedIn. Jobs posted by independent recruiters can also be found on Google search under the search term "contact tracing jobs near me". You can apply to the link provided in these advertisements. The concerned authorities will then review your application and get in touch with you over e-mail or text message or a phone call.
London, Preston, Milton Keynes, and Manchester are some cities for which contact tracing jobs are currently being advertised.