Business Continuity Plan (abridged Version)

To Mitigate the effects of any disruptive challenge which affects the operation of normal business within Keymen Associates Ltd, particularly in terms of prioritising business critical functions and in responding to the challenge.

Plan Objectives:

• Provide a clearly defined course of action
• Provide a timely and orderly recovery of the business
• Identify ‘Business Continuity Team’ where required
• Identify business critical functions and define alternative procedures
• Undertake agency specific risk assessments on the most likely causes of disruption to services
• Undertake a business impact analysis for each activity undertaken within the agency, to help determine what business continuity arrangements are required
• Identify those who must be notified and kept informed of the disruptive challenge affecting normal business
• Document the location of data (hard copy only) in secure off site storage
• Notification of a business interruption may originate from any source

In any situation it is essential that the relevant Duty Manager is contacted as soon as possible. The Duty Manager will activate the plan, using the following activation sequence:-

Standby – Implement – Stand down

Standby – will be used as an early warning of a situation, which might at some later stage escalate and thus require implementation of this plan. Standby allows time to think, brief staff, start a business interruption log and prepare for the development of resources should an implement message be received. This is particularly important if an interruption occurs towards the end of a shift and staff may be asked to stay at work until the situation becomes clear. Resources are not normally deployed at this stage (although this will largely depend upon circumstances) and a ‘stand down’ may follow this type of alert.

Implement – will be used to activate the plan in its entirety.

Stand Down – will be used to signify the de-activation of the plan. It is important that everyone in the organisation knows when the establishment has returned to ‘business as usual’. It is also important that all staff and all stakeholders who helped in the response are thanked for their efforts.

Logging of the incident

Start a log as soon as the incident has started by completing the ‘Business Interruption Log sheet’. NB:- It is important to ensure that all information/decisions and actions are logged in the order they occur. This information will be a record of your decisions and actions. This may be required should a review or inquiry be necessary.

Service User Notification

Where necessary/appropriate you may need to contact Service Users, their relatives/other carers, etc to inform them that an incident has occurred, including advice on what you are doing to manage the situation, if there are likely to be any changes to their normal care plan and how Service Users, other carers and family can assist until normality is restored.

Stakeholder Notification:

Suppliers – Where necessary/appropriate you may need to contact your suppliers and any subcontractors upon whom your agency relies to maintain/deliver services to inform them that an incident has occurred, including advice on what the agency is doing to manage the situation and any risks that have been identified, including any specific advice/instructions for assistance in the management of the incident until normality is restored.

Commissioning Authorities – In addition, you are advised to inform your commissioning authorities that an incident has occurred and advise them of what actions the agency is taking to manage the situation and any risks that have been identified, including any specific advice/instructions to them for assistance in the management of the incident until normality is restored.

Other Associated Agencies – We will also need to contact other agencies that provide care for our Service Users to notify them that an incident has occurred and advise them what the agency is doing to manage the situation and any risks that have been identified.

Recovery – Recovery is the long-term process of rebuilding, restoring and rehabilitating all those affected by the interruption. Depending upon the seriousness of the situation this could take weeks, months or even years. The recovery phrase may well consist of peaks of activity, such as around the time of an anniversary of the incident, as well as routine ongoing work to address the physical and psychological effects of the emergency.

Debrief and Learning Lessons – After and emergency, it is very important that thorough debriefs are carried out to capture lessons learned.

The above is a highly bridged version of Keymen Associates business continuity plan, a full copy of which is available on request.