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Agenda Item No.
HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
1
THURSDAY 26 APRIL 2007 AT 10.00 AM
FINAL REPORT OF THE
BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT TOPIC GROUP
Report of the Head of Scrutiny
[Author: David Moses, Head of Scrutiny
Tel: 01992 555300]
1. Purpose of report
1.1 To present final Report of the Business Continuity Management Topic
group.
1.2 A copy of the Executive Summary, Findings & Recommendations from
the report is included as Appendix 1. A full copy of the report is held in
the Member’s Lounge or can be obtained on request from Democratic
Services.
2. Views of the Resources Scrutiny Committee
2.1 The report was presented to the Resources Scrutiny Committee at its
meeting on 29 March 2007.
2.2 The Committee endorsed the report’s findings & recommendations
and:
concluded that HCC's generic business continuity arrangements
are robust with processes in place for their continued development
and updating:
thanked the members of the Topic Group for their thorough
investigation plus John Boulter and Team, Natalie Rotherham and
Adrian Service for their work and contributions in supporting the
Topic Group.
requested that the report be widely circulated throughout
Hertfordshire.
Requested the OSC include this item in its report to the next
County Council meeting.
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3. Conclusion
3.1 The OSC may wish to further endorse the recommendations and/or
make further comments as appropriate.
Background Papers
Final report of the business Continuity Management Topic Group
Minutes of the Resources Scrutiny Committee Meeting 29 March 2007
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Appendix 1
Executive Summary
This is the report of an all-party Topic Group
established by Hertfordshire County Council’s Remit of the Topic Group
Resources Scrutiny Committee. The purpose
the
of the Topic Group was to examine To review the robustness of the County
robustness of the County Council’s existing Council’s existing business
business continuity management (BCM) continuity management strategies
strategies. The Group comprised five County especially in relation to:
Councillors and held a number of meetings,
taking evidence from external expert a) The ability of the County
witnesses, including Primary Care and the Council’s services to continue
Health Protection Agency, external providers to function should one of our,
and senior Hertfordshire County Council or one of our contractors’,
(HCC) officers. major IT systems fail;
In grouping the essential themes running b) Adequacy of the network’s
through BCM as disruption to People, security arrangements;
Property and Systems, the Head of Safety &
Emergency Risk Management Unit (SERMU) c) Staffing and operational risks
advised that this could be used as a associated with a pandemic
mechanism for assessing the resilience of outbreak e.g flu and the
BCM arrangements. The Group made an consequent ability of the
influenza pandemic the focus of a separate County Council to operate
report due to its likely impact on HCC’s with significantly lower staffing
service delivery; moreover it enabled the
Group to consider the People theme in great d) Hert Business Services
detail.
The remit for the Topic Group included
Hertfordshire Business Services’ (HBS). The
Group clarified that it was able to review Hertfordshire Business Services
business continuity arrangements, but expressed unease in being able to
review the entire operations of HBS as this covered issues outside the Topic
Group’s BCM remit; therefore, the decision was made to focus on the BCM
arrangements and leave a wider review of HBS, if required, to future scrutiny.
One of the primary findings from the Pandemic Report was that an outbreak of
pandemic influenza has considerable potential to cause widespread disruption
to services and presents a significant business continuity challenge. A lack of
Government guidance or a delay in its publication has an impact on-going
planning within HCC. The Group then moved on to consider wider aspects of
BCM.
The Group were reassured that the Authority is taking BCM planning
seriously. In particular, members were impressed with the level of work
already undertaken by officers, especially within the SERMU Team. Testing
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is critical to maintaining the standard achieved and needs to take account of
structural and organisational change within the Authority. The Pandemic
Report identified Government guidance as an area of vulnerability when
developing effective BCM. For the Property theme The Way We Work
presents significant challenges, but will ultimately result in more resilient
service arrangements and around Systems the Group established that HCC
IT resilience is in line with the best practice in private industry.
Having considered the evidence, the Group established a number of findings
and agreed a series of recommendations on behalf of the Resources Scrutiny
Committee. The Overview & Scrutiny (OSC) Committee will then consider
whether to refer these to one or more of the following:
Leader of the Council
Executive Member for Resources
County Council Cabinet
a meeting of the County Council
The work of the Group is detailed in the main body of the report.
Findings Recommendations
Finding 1 Recommendation 1
BCPs are tested annually. During That a risk assessment is conducted to
the Unison strike in 2006, establish the impact of the four Business
departmental BCPs were activated Continuity Team Leaders being located
and partially tested as part of the on the same site. Page 16
strike disruption. Page 18
Recommendation 2
BCPs must continue to be tested
annually. Page 18
Recommendation 3
Departments should thoroughly
document actions and the decisions
taken during incidents. Page 19
Finding 2
The Authority’s enhanced IT
resilience is dependent upon BT.
Page 19
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Finding 3
Internal Audit will take into account
points of concern previously raised
by the Group relating to the
continuity plans of the Council’s
main suppliers, the testing of BCPs
and learning from past
experiences. Page 20
Finding 4
It would be appropriate to review
the new BCPs for the three new
main offices 18 months after the
Stevenage offices are opened in
2008. This will give time for the
BCPs to ‘bed in’. Page 20
Finding 5 Recommendation 4
The capacity of the Fire & Rescue The Fire & Rescue Service fuel plan
Service to maintain services during review for 2007 should address fuel for
a crisis was highlighted by the non-applicance vehicles. Page 22
1,000 additional incidents that
were dealt with during the
Buncefield Incident. The Group
saw this as a clear demonstration
of the robustness of the Fire &
Rescue BCM Plan. Page 21
Finding 6
The Group were alerted to the
importance of the Authority’s staff
support scheme in handling
trauma relating to the workplace.
Page 22
Finding 7 Recommendation 5
Not all voluntary organisations
working with HCC have a BCP. Voluntary organisations working with the
Page 23 Authority to provide services should be
strongly urged to prepare BCPs and
assistance should be given to them.
Page 23
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Recommendation 6
Departments should give consideration
to the “buddying” system in development
by ACS. Page 24
Finding 8
ACS staff stated that the unsung
heroes of the Buncefield Incident
were the vulnerable residents of
the homes who, without fuss or
commotion, let displaced
vulnerable persons share their
rooms during the 5 days of the
disruption. Page 25
Finding 9
Care homes and day centres are
not responsible for stocking
medication used by residents and
clients. Supplies are obtained
directly from the pharmacies on
call. Page 25
Recommendations 7 – 9 arise from the
ACS Learning Points detailed on page
25
Recommendation 7
Strategies for recording essential
information speedily and effectively need
to be established. Page 25
Recommendation 8
Better information must be available to
facilitate the use of equipment in times of
crisis, for instance use of dictaphones,
group texting. Page 25
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Recommendation 9
In the event of a serious incident,
Hertsdirect must be updated at the
earliest possible time and regularly
revised to improve communication for
the benefit of staff and the public. Page
25
Finding 10 Recommendation 10
The Critical Incident Response There is a three year Risk Management
Plans (CIRPs) that schools Programme regarding security
currently have do not cover BCP; arrangements, in which all schools
therefore, the Authority, as Local should participate. Page 26
Education Authority, assumes the
lead or provides support, as
appropriate. Page 26
Recommendation 11
All schools must have Emergency
Response Plans and should test them
regularly. Page 26
Finding 11
The Critical Information
Dissemination System (CIDS) is
capable of being adapted for other
departments and services of the
County Council. HCC has been
invited to present the new
Emergency Response Plans for
Schools and new CID system at
the National Association of Local
Authority Risk Managers (ALARM)
conference to be held in July 2007.
Page 27
Finding 12
In the event that many schools
were closed Herts Catering would
prioritise the delivery of meals to
all schools open, possibly in the
form of packed lunches. Page 28
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Finding 13 Recommendation 12
The current arrangements for the The Overview & Scrutiny Committee
Meals on Wheels Service are may wish to suggest that the efficacy of
under review. New joint the new arrangements is reviewed in 6 –
arrangements with the district 9 months. Page 28
councils will shortly commence.
Page 28
Finding 14 Recommendation 13
Given the differing functions and The Authority, as part of the Way We
services performed by Serco staff, Work Programme, should consider the
compounded by the differing IT introduction of systems so that invoices
systems used at its various and other documents can be processed
operations over the country, there electronically. Page 33
would be no benefit in switching
County Hall staff to its other sites
which did not use LOGICA CMG
Page 32
Finding 15 Recommendation 14
The provision for a standby generator is
There is no standby generator
reconsidered to enhance the robustness
available at the Customer Service
of BCP arrangements. Page 37
Centre; alternative arrangements
would be to field calls to the
Birmingham Service Centre. Page
37
Finding 16 Recommendation 15
If the Customer Services premises Officers of the Authority and Vertex
at Stevenage were unavailable should explore options if the Stevenage
Vertex staff would be relocated to premises were unavailable for a longer
County Hall, Hertford. 30 desks, period of time. Page 37
30 telephones and 12 laptops plus
4 faxes would be immediately
provided. This would be a
temporary arrangement only.
Page 37
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