Business Continuity Plan

Version Control:
Document Name:	Business Continuity Plan
Version:	Version 2.0
Author:	Corporate Support Manager
Approved by:	Management Board/Executive Committee
Date Approved:
Review Date	January 2022

Introduction

The aim of this Business Continuity Plan is to ensure as far as possible the continuation of services provided by Barrow Borough Council following a major disruption.

For the purpose of this plan a major disruption is defined as “an incident or event that disrupts the delivery of Council services and requires contingency action to be taken” this may include:

Significant fire

Flooding

Localised “Extended Loss Of Grid” (long term power outage).

Significant malicious cyber attack

If there is a major disruption caused by staff not being able to attend work due to pandemic or severe weather conditions will be managed from existing venues and follow the proposed priority for service delivery however, this will also be dependent on the skills available.

Major emergencies which impact on the safety of people will be dealt with by the Cumbria Resilience Unit. The Council has duties and responsibilities under the Civil Contingency Act but they are not included in this plan.

More information can be found from the website below.

https://www.barrowbc.gov.uk/about-the-council/emergency-planning/

Purpose of the plan

To provide visibility of the Council’s arrangements for the continuation of services in case of a major disruption.

To identify the Council’s critical functions and activities and provide a prioritised and timely response to recovering service delivery if there is a major disruption.

To identify key roles, responsibilities and contacts to ensure we maintain service delivery if there is a major disruption.

The objective is to mobilise resources to deal with the impact of the disruption and initiate the recovery process. Departmental managers will need to prioritise specific activities so they can be accommodated in the IT recovery plan.

This plan may be used in conjunction with the ICT Disaster Recovery Plan which was approved by Management Board in February 2018 and is available on the Council’s intranet.

Responsibility for activation of the plan

In the event of a major disruption the Executive Director or named deputy will make an initial assessment of the situation and determine whether to convene a meeting of Management Board and other officers.

If the Business Continuity Plan is activated, Management Board will assign emergency roles to officers as required.

This will include:-

Identifying immediate action to be taken.

Agreeing realistic time-scale for the recovery of critical Council Services.

Allocating resource to recover the critical services.

Communicating with staff, Elected Members and the public.

Alternative premises and access to systems

In the event of the Town Hall or other premises being incapacitated alternative accommodation for employees will be provided in the short to medium term. If longer term accommodation is required options for this will be determined as part of the impact assessment of the disruption.

The Council has installed links between the Town Hall and an offsite location. This provides connectivity to enable disaster recovery plans to be implemented if there was an event which prevented us operating from the Town Hall.

IT Department is developing a process flow for bringing servers back on-line starting with the main corporate servers providing active directory to allow access to the network, email and shared drives. The order of other servers being brought back on line will be dependant on the priority of specific activities.

Business critical staff from the Town Hall and Forum will be able work from a remote location with access to the Council’s network. There will be a lead time for procuring and setting up switches and cables.

The Council will maintain a small stock of thin client VDI units, PCs and monitors at a remote site to minimise the delay to recovery of business critical services. If required additional systems will be procured during the first day of recovery, there will be a lead time for setting up PCs.

Small quantities of office furniture can be transferred from other Council venues at short notice or purchased if required.

Recovering the Council’s IT network is a key part of business continuity but service managers will need to have an understanding of how their systems operate to assist IT in bringing services back on-line.

Telephony

IT Services will contact the telephony provider and transfer the switchboard number (876543) to an alternative number at a Council office with a dedicated phone line. The location will be selected depending on the location of the disruption event and used for the customer team. Mobile phones can be used for outgoing calls.

Prioritisation

In the event of a major disruption it is unlikely that the Council will be able to provide a full range of services immediately so there is a requirement to prioritise service delivery. A structured approach has been adopted and the following system of prioritisation has been agreed.

Priority 1: Services and operations that directly impact on the wellbeing of people in the Borough

Priority 2: Services and operations that impact on the statutory and discretionary functions of the Council.

Priority 3: Services that are mainly internal and will not have a significant impact on residents.

Each function needs to be reviewed by departmental managers and the potential impact on service delivery should be identified. A timeframe for recovery has been proposed and in some cases actions to mitigate the impact have been put in place.

This is not a comprehensive list of services and some operations carried out by internal services will need to be done before that service is up and running.

Functional support including alternative premises, data and systems requirements and additional staff requirements has been identified but this will need to be reviewed and updated by service managers on a regular basis.

The responsible officer and deputies need to be identified.

Critical function identification and recovery process

Priority 1: Management Board

Responsibility	Executive Director (Director of Resources)
Potential impact	Management Board will be required to consider the impact on critical services and re-deploy resources as appropriate
Recovery timeframe	24 hours
Mitigating action	Management Board consists of five senior managers and meet regularly to ensure all are up-to-date with the services across the Council
Additional staff requirement	Members of Management Group as required

Priority 1: Payment of housing benefits

Responsibility	Director of Resources (Revenues and Benefits Manager)
Potential impact	HB recipients may be unable to pay rent which may compromise their tenancies
Recovery timeframe	72 hours
Mitigating action	Payments are created at the Forum by Barrow Council staff BACS support is available from supplier and at bank Alternative payment arrangements can be made available
Additional staff requirement	Financial Services Manager and support from an IT Officer may be required to initiate the systems.

Priority 1: Homelessness Advice and Assistance

Responsibility	Assistant Director Housing (Housing Operations Manager)
Potential impact	Families and vulnerable people may not have access to accommodation
Recovery timeframe	Immediately by extending the emergency service to 24 hours.
Mitigating action	Out of hours emergency service is currently in operation. Dispersed accommodation and Bed and breakfast accommodation can be accessed via the emergency service or the Homeless Advise and Assistance Team
Additional staff requirement	Support from an IT Officer

Priority 1: Household refuse collection service including fly-tips and dead animals

Responsibility	Assistant Director Community Services (Street Care Manager)
Potential impact	Health risk from accumulating rubbish
Recovery timeframe	72 hours
Mitigating action	Service is provided by external contractor who has contingency plans in place Adverse weather plan waste collection plan in place.
Additional staff requirement	Will be provided by FCC Environment

Priority 1: Provision of burial and cremation service.

Responsibility	Assistant Director Community Services (Cemetery and Crematorium Manager)
Potential impact	Health risk from delayed burials / cremations
Recovery timeframe	72 hours
Mitigating action	Emergency burial and cremation plan in place. The burial and cremation software system is remote from the Town Hall
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 1: Customer Team

Responsibility	Assistant Director Community Services (Contracts Manager)
Potential impact	Residents are unable to contact the Council for information and services
Recovery timeframe	72 hours
Mitigating action	Staff will migrate to PLC to access network.
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 1: Public Protection Service: Food safety, Infectious diseases, H&S incident and accident investigations

Responsibility	Public Protection Manager, (Commercial Team Leader).
Potential impact	Health risks failure to meet statutory response times
Recovery timeframe	72 hours
Mitigating action	Procedures are available on Council servers
Additional staff requirement	Equivalent officers from other LAs and consultants. Access to these resources is currently being investigated.

Priority 1: Building control

Responsibility	Building Control Manager (Building Control Surveyor)
Potential impact	Potential risk from dangerous structures
Recovery timeframe	Immediately by extending the emergency service to 24 hours.
Mitigating action	None
Additional staff requirement	Support from an IT Officer

Priority 1: IT services

Responsibility	Corporate Support Manager (IT Team Leader)
Potential impact	Access to the Council’s network is required to facilitate recovery of others key services.
Recovery timeframe	72 hours
Mitigating action	None
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 2: Public Protection Service: Public health, health and safety and licensing

Responsibility	Public Protection Service Manager, Commercial Team Leader, Environmental Protection & Public Health Team Leader.
Potential impact	Potential impact on the local economy, Public Safety and Public Health risks (Public Health Burials / Statutory Nuisances)
Recovery timeframe	7 days
Mitigating action	None
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 2: Development Control services

Responsibility	Development Services Manager (Development Service’s Management)
Potential impact	Potential impact on local economy
Recovery timeframe	7 Days
Mitigating action	None
Additional staff requirement	Support from an IT Officer

Priority 2: Democratic services and facilities for Council meetings

Responsibility	Democratic Services Manager
Potential impact	Lack of facilities for Councillors and decision making committees
Recovery timeframe	7 Days
Mitigating action	None
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 2: Housing tenancy services, maintenance and business support

Responsibility	Assistant Director Housing (Housing Maintenance Manager)
Potential impact	Security and condition of tenant’s homes. Loss of income to the Council
Recovery timeframe	7 Days
Mitigating action	A 24 hour emergency service currently operates
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 2: Household recycling and green waste collection service

Responsibility	Assistant Director Community Service (Street Care Manager)
Potential impact	Health risk from accumulating rubbish and impact on residual household waste.
Recovery timeframe	7 Days
Mitigating action	Service is provided by external contractor who has contingency plans in place
Additional staff requirement	Will be provided by FCC Environment

Priority 2: Streetcare services

Responsibility	Assistant Director - Community Service (Street Care Manager)
Potential impact	Health risk from accumulating rubbish
Recovery timeframe	7 Days
Mitigating action	Services are provided by external contractors but some monitoring of service is required.
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 2: Financial Services and Accounting

Responsibility	Financial Services Manager (Accountancy Services Manager)
Potential impact	Financial viability of the Council
Recovery timeframe	7 Day
Mitigating action	Critical payments can be made by the Director of Resources offsite.
Additional staff requirement	Hr staff for frontier and payroll.

Priority 2: Council Tax and NNDR (priority will change during critical periods e.g. Annual billing)

Responsibility	Director of Resources (Revenues and Benefits Manager)
Potential impact	Reduction in income
Recovery timeframe	7 Days
Mitigating action	Direct debit files are collected by the Council, so secure file transfer protocols will still be required. Payments can be made by automated telephone system, online and through the bank. Cheques sent in the post could be redirected to remote accommodation
Additional staff requirement	Financial Services Manager and support from an IT Officer

Priority 2: Cultural Services

Responsibility	Assistant Director Community Services (Venue managers)
Potential impact	Provision of cultural services. Impact on Council income.
Recovery timeframe	7 Days
Mitigating action	The venues are in different locations and it is unlikely all of them will be affected.
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 2: Market

Responsibility	Assistant Director Community Services (Market Manager)
Potential impact	Impact on local economy
Recovery timeframe	7 Days
Mitigating action	Market attendants are on-site to maintain the facilities.
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 2: Electoral services (Priority will change at critical times e.g. election periods)

Responsibility	Executive Director (Democratic Services Manager)
Potential impact	Delay in maintaining electoral register
Recovery timeframe	7 Days
Mitigating action	Service can be delivered offsite if required
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 2: Parking services

Responsibility	Assistant Director Community Services (Parking Manager)
Potential impact	Impact on Council income
Recovery timeframe	7 Days
Mitigating action	Civil Enforcement Officers work off-site
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 2: Corporate property maintenance

Responsibility	Property Services Group Manager
Potential impact	Security and condition of corporate buildings. Need to provide appropriate working environment insofar as possible.
Recovery timeframe	7 Days
Mitigating action	Need to maintain an emergency service
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 3: Services (including HR and Corporate Support)

Responsibility	Director of Resources (Corporate Support Manager)
Potential impact	Delay in delivering corporate support services
Recovery timeframe	30 Days
Mitigating action	None
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 3: Internal audit

Responsibility	Director of Resources (Head of Internal Audit)
Potential impact	Delay in delivering the audit plan. Lack of monitoring of remedial action and any associated risk.
Recovery timeframe	30 Days
Mitigating action	Service can be delivered offsite if required
Additional staff requirement	None

Priority 3: Local Plan

Responsibility	Assistant Director Regeneration and Built Environment (Development Services Manager – Planning Policy)
Potential impact	Delay in delivering the Local plan
Recovery timeframe	30 Days
Mitigating action	Service can be delivered offsite if required
Additional staff requirement	None

Testing

The technical aspects of the system will be tested on a six monthly basis to ensure the plan can be activated.

Information and Publicity

Information will be cascaded to staff via members of Management Board.

The Executive Director will be responsible for ensuring that the leaders of political groups are kept informed of any developments

The Corporate Support Division will be responsible for external communications.

Record keeping

The manager of each service is responsible for ensuring that appropriate records are kept of all decisions and transactions.

Availability of the Plan

The plan will be published on the Council’s intranet.

Updating the plan

The plan will routinely be reviewed on a triennial basis but there may be additional updates as required.