There are also frustrations within local government that crucial data needed for contact tracing, as well as key information on how local lockdowns should be implemented, has not yet been shared by Whitehall.

The new ‘NHS Test & Trace’ system, launched today by health and social care secretary Matt Hancock, should mean anyone who has been in contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus will be contacted by a ‘tracer’ and asked to self-isolate for 14 days. Councils will focus on identifying and containing potential outbreaks in places such as workplaces, housing complexes, care homes and schools.

It is intended to replace the national lockdown and allow for smaller local lockdowns where necessary to respond to a flare ups using tailored local outbreak plans developed by public health directors.

However, LGC has learnt that significant concerns remain over how the new system will work.

Meanwhile, the Local Government Association is urgently seeking to understand how ‘localised restrictions’ will work in practice, and is raising a range of queries with Whitehall about local powers to enforce lockdown arrangements.

The government claims that NHS Test and Trace, which will include 25,000 dedicated contact tracing staff working with Public Health England, will have the capacity to trace the contacts of 10,000 people who test positive for coronavirus a day, with the potential to be scaled upwards if needed.

Yesterday, Sir Chris Ham, former chief executive of the King’s Fund and chair of the Coventry & Warwickshire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, retweeted a message from someone claiming to be a contact tracer saying they were “frankly astonished” to hear the launch was happening this morning as they “don’t even have a log-in for the CTAS [Contact Tracing and Advice Service software] system”.

Sir Chris said this was a “reminder of how much more needs to be done to bring a coherent test and trace system into existence”.

Dominic Harrison, director of public health for Blackburn with Darwen BC, said “the systems protocols between [government] levels” and the standard operating procedures have not yet been agreed.

Despite Mr Hancock’s announcement yesterday that eligibility for a test now extends to everyone who is symptomatic, including under-fives, Mr Harrison claims “there is not enough testing capacity to even complete the care homes testing for three weeks.” “This system is not up and running yet!” he said.

This morning, the BBC claimed there have been reports from contact-tracers that the website is crashing.

The deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery said: “Rather than pretending we are about to see a world class test and trace service, the government should acknowledge that this will take time. It should not repeat the mistake of overpromising and under-delivering.”

Both the LGA and ADPH are calling on the government to share more data with the sector in order to make the contact tracing more efficient, including test results and “assumptions used to generate the testing and tracing models in the first place”.

Chair of the LGA’s community wellbeing board, Ian Hudspeth (Con), said: “It is important that councils have the capacity and necessary data to play their full part in this national programme, so they can understand where the outbreaks are happening and be able to act quickly to contain them.”

Cllr Hudspeth also claimed the programme’s success depends on the continued co-operation of the general public, who would be “reassured and encouraged if the roll-out of the service is underpinned by the leadership of their local council”.