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Solace President Joanne Roney has urged the Government and the NHS to work more closely with local government to ensure that we can meet the Prime Minister’s ambition of administering almost 14 million vaccinations to the most vulnerable by the middle of February.

She said: “Local authorities are committed to helping our health partners and the Government to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

“But we can only play our full part if our national, regional and local partners share all the relevant data, including on vaccine supply, with us in a timely manner. This will allow councils to effectively monitor vaccination take-up rates across different areas and groups of residents, highlighting any localised equality impacts, and enabling us to swiftly identify and resolve issues any that may arise.

“From testing to contact tracing, one of the many lessons we have learned from the pandemic response to date is that it is better to maximise local government involvement in the design and delivery of major national programmes in order to ensure that they work well in our communities and achieve the desired outcomes.

“The sector stands ready to help deliver the vaccination programme as we collectively seek to save lives, protect the NHS and get the country back on its feet.”