Business Continuity
Hertfordshire County Council is committed to practising business continuity in order to safeguard the provision of our critical services to the community when an incident threatens to disrupt us all. To help plan for the unexpected, we need to know what our suppliers would be able to do in similar circumstances. That is why our contracts require suppliers to have business continuity plans to show how they could restore services if hit by a major disruption and the timescales involved.
What is a Business Continuity Plan?
As the name suggest, it is simply a plan to be used to keep the business in operation when incidents threaten to impact it. A plan will help you ensure the key aspects of the business are covered and are in the best position to continue your business. Being prepared is the key. Plans do not have to be complicated, especially for small businesses. The essential is to have prepared for the worst that could realistically happen and have identified what would help you survive.
How do I get a Business Continuity Plan?
As a starting point click here to obtain more information, the outline contents for a plan and links to other sources of business continuity information that is published on the main Hertfordshire County Council web site
I have a Business Continuity Plan; do I have to do anything else?
Yes. It is great that you have a plan and you should review it regularly to keep contact details up to date and to be confident that it would work. Hertfordshire County Council ask our suppliers to asses their plans at least once every 12 months and to let us know the result.
How do I assess my Business Continuity Plan?
A good way to do this is to run a tabletop exercise to test all or parts of the document. A tabletop exercise is a meeting with the key people in the plan and who work through it “line by line” against a possible scenario where the plan could be used. Tests could be also be undertaken by specific checks such as the telephoning of key staff to confirm the correct contact numbers are in place