Tour de France

Business Continuity Plan

Introduction

Sheffield City Council has developed this basic Business Continuity Plan to assist businesses in Sheffield currently without such plans to consider, prepare for and manage the potential impact of the Tour De France ‘Grand Départ’ during the lead-up to and on the weekend of the 5th & 6th July 2014.

Use of the template will help you to identify risks and develop a basic Business Continuity Plan which will help you to protect your business when the largest annual free sporting event in the world arrives in Sheffield on 6th July.

Remember - forward planning will be essential to minimise any disruption to your business.

Why business continuity?

Business continuity shouldn’t be just for the Tour De France ‘Grand Départ’, it should be part of the way you always run your business, helping you to prepare to maintain or recover your service during and following a disruption.

Having a well-developed Business Continuity Plan in place will help to protect your business against the impact of a disruption, such as:

·  Shortage of staff

·  Denial of access to premises

·  Computer failure or loss of data

·  Disruption to key suppliers and supplies

·  Flooding and severe weather

·  Utility interruption or failure

·  Technical or environmental failure

·  Fire

·  Adverse publicity

·  Theft/vandalism

·  Bomb threat

·  Product contamination

·  And, of course major events such as the Tour De France!

Such disruptions could result in:

·  Partial or complete failure of your business

·  Loss of income

·  Financial, legal and other penalties

·  Human resource issues

·  Loss of reputation and or loss of customers

·  Increased insurance payments.

It is therefore important that businesses both large and small ensure that in the event of disruption that their critical services, activities and functions are maintained to a minimum acceptable level - and employees understand what is expected of them.

Understanding your business and identifying the risks

In order to develop a Business Continuity Plan you need to have a thorough understanding of your business. This involves identifying the critical functions of your business, the effect of those functions being disrupted and the priority for recovery of those functions.

You will need to identify the risks or threats which could impact your business and consider what measures could be implemented to help reduce or manage the identified risks. You must decide what measures are appropriate and what is cost effective based on the potential impact to your business.

You can’t stop all risks and threats from becoming a reality, but by identifying the risks and considering measures in advance, you will be aware of the risks and be as prepared as possible.

Preparing your Business Continuity Plan

Using the information gathered above, a basic Business Continuity Plan can be developed. The plan should contain specific actions to reduce or manage the identified risks and threats. The plan will help you to manage the impact of disruptive incidents and events and increase your ability to continue to maintain the critical activities and functions of your business.

The basic Business Continuity Plan contained as part of this document will help you to consider and plan for the impact of the following scenarios which might occur during the Tour De France ‘Grand Départ’:

·  Shortage of staff

·  Denial of access to premises

·  Interruption or loss of information communication technology & access to data

·  Disruption to key suppliers and supplies

This is a basic Business Continuity Plan. Beyond the Tour De France, you should use the basic plan to inform development of a more detailed plan; protecting your business and safeguarding the interests of your key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value creating activities whether your business provides a product or a service.

Contents

The plan is a basic outline to help you protect your business. It is designed to help you to document key processes and actions that you or your staff would need to undertake should there be a business disruption. The plan should be stored both electronically and in hard copy format and accessible by those who would need to implement it should a disruption occur.

Part 1. Staff Contact List

A contact list for key members of staff is an essential part of a Business Continuity Plan. It should indicate the first point of contact in the event of an emergency or disruption including contact details during out of hours.

Name / Position or
Job Title / Office Contact / Mobile Contact / Home
Contact

Part 2. Recovery Objectives

You need to identify the various functions or activities your business undertakes particularly those that are time sensitive and need to be restored or recovered first. Listing the activities or functions in order of time sensitivity will help you to prioritise and plan to recover your key activities and functions first.

Time Sensitivity / Activities or Functions
Activities requiring recovery within 0 – 1 hour. / 1.
2.
3.
4.
Activities requiring recovery within 1 – 24 hours. / 1.
2.
3.
4.
Activities requiring recovery within 24 hours to 5 working days. / 1.
2.
3.
4.
Activities which can be recovered progressively after 5 working days. / 1.
2.
3.
4.

Part 3. Plan Activation Procedure

It is important to have a clear activation procedure for the Business Continuity Plan. The steps to be taken will need to be designed to suit the needs of the organisation; however the following might provide some useful generic steps:

The member of staff activating the plan will take the following actions:

·  Access the Business Continuity Plan.

·  Establish the impact of the disruption i.e. the nature of the disruption and its impact on the organisation, its service, activities or functions, damage, casualties etc.

·  Initiate recording of entries into the Incident Log (refer to Part 9.)

·  Inform other members of staff as appropriate.

·  Take control of the disruption and identify the activities or functions to be prioritised and recovered first.

·  Direct and oversee the response or recovery operation.

·  Monitor the response or recovery operation and provide regular status reports to management and key stakeholders as required.

·  Stand-down the response or recovery operation when the business, service, activities or functions are recovered and business as usual is restored.

The following sections (parts 4 to 7) are for you to document your procedures for responding to a disruptive incident and how your organisation will maintain and/or recover its service, activities or functions.

Although the sections can be applied generically to any disruptive incident, the actions or considerations in italics are focussed on the Tour De France ‘Grand Départ’ and are intended as guidance to help to inform your planning.

Part 4. People (Staff)

Objectives / Actions/Considerations
Confirm the nature and impact of the disruption. / ·  Establish what has happened?
·  When did it occur?
·  What services, activities or functions are affected?
·  How serious is the disruption?
·  What is the estimated duration of the disruption?
·  Who has been informed?
Decide whether to invoke the Business Continuity Plan.
Consideration should be given to: / ·  The impact of the disruption on staffing levels.
·  The organisations ability to maintain its priority services, activities or functions.
Enter specific actions or considerations to address loss of or disruption to staff (including communications requirements). / ·  Are you keeping your staff informed and aware of the potential impact of the Tour De France ‘Grand Départ’? Do they know the dates?
·  Have you instructed your staff to ‘keep in touch’ and ring in to their office or manager, client or customer if they are going to be late due to the impact of road closures, diversions or general congestion?
·  Staff using public transport may find that services have been diverted, or that demand on the day is so high that travel delays are inevitable. Have you informed your staff to check with their transport provider for re-routing of services prior to travel?
·  If you are anticipating that some staff will arrive late can appointments or visits be prioritised to the most urgent or critical?
·  Is it possible to have in place measures to maintain and widen the availability of staff on the day i.e. having additional staff available on standby if a problem should arise?
·  Have you considered widening the availability of core skills and knowledge in the event of a reduction in staff availability i.e. through multi-skill training of staff and documenting processes or providing written instructions or checklists?
·  Staff such as team leaders, supervisors or co-ordinators may not be able to access their normal place of work. Have you considered alternative ways of working, such as alternative offices in locations away from the route, or working from home if the required ICT is available?
·  Are you carefully managing requests for leave from staff during the weekend of the ‘Grand Départ’ to ensure adequate staffing levels are available to maintain services on the day?


Part 5. Service Users

Objectives / Actions/Considerations
Confirm the nature and impact of the disruption to service users. / ·  Establish what has happened?
·  When did it occur?
·  Who are the affected service users?
·  What are their needs (medical, support etc)?
·  What services, activities or functions are affected?
·  How serious is the situation?
·  Has anyone been harmed?
·  What is the estimated duration of the disruption?
·  Who has been informed?
·  Do the emergency services need informing?
Decide whether to invoke the Business Continuity Plan.
Consideration should be given to: / ·  The impact of the disruption on service users.
·  The organisations ability to maintain its priority services, activities or functions.
Enter specific actions or considerations to address loss of or denial of access to premises (including communications requirements). / ·  Have you identified all of your service users? Where do they live?
·  What are their needs? Does the service you provide need to be prioritised? Can some appointments or visits be rescheduled for another day or the same day before or after the event has passed?
·  Are you keeping your service users informed and aware of the potential impact of the Tour De France ‘Grand Départ’? Do they know the dates? And how have they been informed?
·  Do your service users require transport to access your service?
·  Do your service users have meals delivered to them?
·  Do your services required medication / equipment?
·  Have you an emergency contact number for clients and customers to ring if appointments or visits are late or missed? Are your clients and customers aware of this number?


Part 6. Denial of access to buildings, premises & work environment

Objectives / Actions/Considerations
Establish the current situation at the affected premises. / ·  Establish what has happened?
·  When did it occur?
·  Is there access to the premises?
·  What services, activities or functions are affected?
·  How serious is the situation?
·  Has anyone being harmed?
·  What is the estimated duration of the disruption?
·  Who has been informed?
·  Do the emergency services need informing?
Decide whether to invoke the Business Continuity Plan.
Consideration should be given to: / ·  How quickly the business will be able to enter the affected premises.
·  The organisations ability to maintain its priority services, activities or functions.
Enter specific actions or considerations to address loss of or denial of access to premises (including communications requirements). / ·  Have you considered the impact of road closures or diversions on your organisation? Road closures and diversions are likely to be in place on the day by 07:00 through until 15:00 at the earliest making vehicular access to certain areas and premises difficult and cross city travel challenging. Have you checked-out the Grand Départ website for road closures and changes to public transport?
·  Although vehicular access may be limited, marshalled pedestrian access or crossing points will be maintained at specific points on the route up until the procession (caravan) comes through and during the race itself. Have you made your staff aware of such crossing points? They will be able to get to where they need to be, but it might take longer or access might be on foot rather than by vehicle.
·  Can workload or appointments be prioritised in advance to reduce potential impact ‘on the day’?
·  Can some appointments or visits be rescheduled for another day or the same day before or after the event has passed?
·  Have you informed your customers or clients of any changes to services, appointments, visits etc. and that those already scheduled may be subject to delay ‘on the day due to road closures, diversions and congestion?
·  Have you instructed your staff to ‘keep in touch’ and ring in to their office or manager, client or customer if they are experiencing difficulties keeping to schedules (particularly important where vulnerable adults and children are involved)?
·  Have you an emergency contact number for clients and customers to ring if appointments or visits are late or missed? Are your clients and customers aware of this number?

Part 7. Interruption or loss of information communication technology & access to data

Objectives / Actions/Considerations
Confirm the nature and impact of the disruption. / ·  Establish what has happened?
·  When did it occur?
·  Which ICT systems are disrupted?
·  What services, activities or functions are affected?
·  How serious is the situation?
·  What is the estimated duration of the disruption?
·  Who has been informed?
Decide whether to invoke the Business Continuity Plan.
Consideration should be given to: / ·  How long will ICT systems be unavailable?
·  Are the ICT systems disrupted required to support time sensitive activities or functions?
Enter specific actions or considerations to address loss of or interruption to information communication technology and access to data (including communications requirements). / ·  Demand on the telephone network during the ‘Grand Départ’ is likely to be significant particularly in densely crowded areas. Have you considered alternative methods of communications as a contingency in the event that there are issues with mobile connectivity, particularly where staff have a reliance on the use of mobile technology? Such contingencies will need to include how you will communicate with staff, clients and customers and how they will communicate with you? Use of all communication channels open to your business should be considered including social media.
·  Have you considered contingencies in the event of loss or interruption to your computer systems? Do you have your ICT provider Help Desk or emergency contact number to hand?
·  Do you have pre-printed templates to record information in a consistent manner that can be later input into the computer system once the problem has been resolved?
·  Have you considered printing out key data held on the computer system in advance for use ‘on the day’ in case your computer system fails? Such data might include appointments, visits, staff rotas, staff, client or customer contact details etc.
·  Remember, if staff are relocated to alternative premises away from the route of the ‘Grand Départ’ then desktop telephone, answer-phone and fax numbers will be different and will need to be communicated to staff, clients, customers etc.


Part 8. Disruption to key suppliers and supplies – includes passenger transport, community meals, equipment stores, other key stakeholders