Two contracts for contact tracers with Serco and Sitel have been extended by six months by the Department of Health and Social Care for an additional cost of £168m. Serco and Sitel have been supplying a pool of call centre operators for NHS Test and Trace since May 2020.
The contracts have been extended multiple times through the pandemic. This latest extension will take them from June up to the end of November 2021.
Sitel’s extension will add £102m to its contract, making it worth nearly £398m in total. The extension will cover 4,000 full-time equivalent contact tracers and isolation assurance compliance call handlers from June to the end of August.
The Serco contract extension is for an additional £66m, increasing the total cost of its contract to over £424m. It covers 3,000 FTE contact tracers to the end of August, rising to 4,000 from September to the end of November.
Full story in The HSJ, 23 June 2021
