Foreword
Derbyshire County Council is one of the top performing councils in the country. In order to maintain our high standards, it is important to plan for how we can deal with any potential disruption to our key services.
Our corporate business continuity plan provides a strategic framework around which employees can work to enable critical functions to be maintained, or quickly restored to minimise any effect on service delivery to the community.
The appendices to this plan cover corporate services provided at our headquarters and looks at priority functions and minimum staffing levels so we can continue to provide critical support to front-line services. Other plans focus on corporate services provided at other locations, partnership working and external suppliers.
We have an annual programme of training and exercises to ensure employees understand what their roles and responsibilities are, test the effectiveness of the plan and assist with future development.
Councillor Barry Lewis, Leader of the Council
Policy
Scope
Derbyshire County Council is committed to ensuring robust and effective business continuity management as a key mechanism to restore and deliver continuity of key services in the event of a disruption or emergency.
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 placed a statutory duty on the council as a designated Category 1 responder to ensure that it can:
- respond to an emergency
- continue to support emergency response partners
- continue to provide critical services to the public
The business continuity plan provides the operational structure for responding to serious disruption, and can be summarised as follows:
- to have an operational document that sets out priorities, management structures and communications mechanisms to ensure an appropriate response to any disruption
- the plan addresses the full range of the council's support functions and service areas. Where appropriate, it considers the interdependencies of different organisations, mutual aid, and partnership arrangements
- specific strategies have been produced to mitigate the effects of loss of corporate infrastructure including buildings, communications, ICT, and employees
- departments will continue to prepare and maintain front-line service business continuity plans
Aim and objectives
The aim of the plan is:
- to anticipate risks, mitigate where possible and to have flexible and tested plans in place to minimise disruption when unplanned events significantly interrupt normal business.
The objectives are:
- to provide the council with a strategic framework so it can continue to exercise its critical functions in the event of an emergency
- to identify the potential areas of vulnerability in council corporate services
- to determine overall priorities for recovery of corporate functions if disruption takes place
- to build on processes already in place for risk management, ensuring that all plans are integrated into the overall framework.
- to ensure all council departments are involved in the preparation of the plan, so that there is an effective and consistent response to service continuity
- to undertake training and awareness programmes for employees, suppliers, and partners as appropriate and carry out regular tests of the plan to validate the arrangements
Methods and standards
The council's business continuity management arrangements currently meet the mandatory requirements within the Cabinet Office document "Expectations and Indicators of Good Practice Set for Category 1 and 2 Responders". It is also the intention to follow the principles of ISO 22301.
Responsibilities
The business continuity management process is designed to ensure it is a mainstream activity rather than simply an emergency response.
The managing director and corporate management team champions business continuity management across the authority, however the responsibility for business continuity does not rest solely with the managing director/executive directors/corporate management team but with all employees.
Executive directors will nominate a lead departmental representative (assistant director or above) responsible for business continuity within that department.
Governance
This plan takes into consideration the corporate risks and those identified within the Derbyshire Resilience Partnership community risk register to ensure business continuity reflects the current assessment of likelihood of adverse events. It is also reviewed annually to ensure that information on service area functions is kept up to date.
The plan will be reviewed when there are significant changes to accommodation, structural reorganisations within the council or if new duties or responsibilities are taken on, however it is the responsibility of the lead departmental representative within each department to notify the emergency planning team of any significant changes that occur between updates.
In line with best practice the plan will be reviewed annually. However, should there be major changes to the structure or accommodation then a review will be undertaken. Periodically and in line with the council's auditing policy, the business continuity plan will be audited by either the internal audit team or external auditors appointed by the council.
Training and exercises
Training takes place regularly for those officers likely to be called on to lead or be part of the business continuity management and support teams.
Lessons learnt from training and exercises are used to determine any amendments or inclusions required when the plan is updated.