Communicable disease outbreak management guidance
InformationIdentification on principles for the identification and management of outbreaks and resources to support local health protection system response to outbreaks of communicable disease.
Documents
Details
The guidance and toolkits should be considered alongside national legislation and policy and are intended to complement disease and organisation-specific guidance. The contents of the guidance and toolkits should not be considered prescriptive and do not override established and functional operating practice and arrangements at a local system level. However, local systems should be informed by the contents with a view to developing consistent outbreak management practice over time.
The communicable disease outbreak management guidance and toolkits provide information on principles for the identification and management of outbreaks and resources to support local health protection system response to outbreaks of communicable disease.
Working closely with NHS England (NHSE) and wider system partners, the guidance and toolkits have been developed by:
- UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
- Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH)
- Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH)
- Food Standards Agency (FSA)
- Local Government Association (LGA)
Feedback
You can provide feedback on the Communicable Disease Outbreak Management Guidance and associated toolkits at cdomfeedback@ukhsa.gov.uk or by completing the short survey:
Updates to this page
-
Additional toolkit 'Plain English guidance to incident management teams'. Amendments to reflect proposed system changes, changes to legislation and policy included within organisational roles and responsibilities. Additional resource links including toolkit to support community engagement, health equity tools. Reference to whole-genome sequencing and disease-specific guidance, added to outbreak definition. Additional information within the IMT toolkit (toolkit 4) including leadership, decision-making, escalation and documentation processes. Alignment of auditable standards to include CQC domains of quality.
-
Added 'TAPIE model for tailoring communication before, during and after communicable disease outbreaks'.
-
First published.
Update history
2026-07-28 09:30
Additional toolkit ‘Plain English guidance to incident management teams’. Amendments to reflect proposed system changes, changes to legislation and policy included within organisational roles and responsibilities. Additional resource links including toolkit to support community engagement, health equity tools. Reference to whole-genome sequencing and disease-specific guidance, added to outbreak definition. Additional information within the IMT toolkit (toolkit 4) including leadership, decision-making, escalation and documentation processes. Alignment of auditable standards to include CQC domains of quality.
2025-09-02 17:06
Added ‘TAPIE model for tailoring communication before, during and after communicable disease outbreaks’.
2025-01-21 09:30
First published.