Outbreak management

Early reporting of suspected outbreaks in a care home, nursery or school is essential for effective management.

If two or more people are displaying symptoms of the same condition; please contact UK Health Security Agency on 0344 225 0562 and select option 2 for Cumbria and Lancashire.

For the management of diarrhoea and vomiting in education and care settings please refer to the outbreak guidance (PDF 783 KB) issued by UK Health Security Agency.

There are useful printable resources included in this document:

  • Action check list for care home manager
  • Resident and staff outbreak log sheet
  • Visitor outbreak notice poster
  • Hand wash notice poster
  • Cleaning equipment colour coding

For the management of influenza, please refer to the UKHSA flu resource pack for care homes (PDF 2MB).

Headteachers and managers should contact UKHSA as soon as they suspect an outbreak to discuss the situation and agree if any actions are needed. It is useful to have the information listed below available before this discussion as it will help to inform the size and nature of the outbreak:

  • total numbers affected (staff and children)
  • symptoms
  • date(s) when symptoms started
  • number of classes affected

For further information about norovirus, scabies, influenza and other infections; please refer to the NHS Choices website.

Post Infection Reviews (PIR)

The Post Infection Review (PIR) form can assist social care settings and infection prevention leads to understand the causes of an outbreak from GERMS (gastrointestinal, environmental, respiratory, multi-drug resistance organisms, skin).

The aim of the PIR process is to help identify any critical points and contributory factors leading to certain infections or outbreaks.

Completing the PIR form enables lessons to be learnt and highlight areas for improvement of infection prevention and control measures in the setting.

Conducting PIR's helps to reduce the impact of a current outbreak (breaking the chain of infection) and prevent future outbreaks.

Complete the Post Infection Review form

Please use for Non-Covid outbreaks only. For Covid PIR forms please use COVID-19 (Coronavirus)