2.1.3 Developing a Transition Plan

The purpose of the Transition Plan is to identify and timetable the tasks which need to be undertaken prior to Service Commencement, including the development of all its contract management systems, the public sector resources required to perform them and any consequent training needs for the team. The Contract Manager should prepare the Transition Plan well before contract signature. This is one of the key reasons why the Contract Manager should be appointed early.

The Transition Plan should include a list of activities, identify inter-dependencies, timescales and resources and should be updated regularly. It should link to the communications plan to make sure that all timings are appropriate and that stakeholders have been prepared for the changes.  The plan is critical to the successful management of the project in the Transition Period and hence should be subject to rigorous review by both the internal QA processes and the Project Board.   

An illustrative example of the contents of a Transition Plan is attached at Appendix D. 

After the appointment of preferred bidder, Authorities should receive a project plan from the bidder which sets out the tasks to be undertaken by the Contractor up to Service Commencement.  It is obviously desirable that the bidder should not be delayed by any actions on the part of the Authority. Therefore as a minimum the Authority's project team should review this plan to see if there are any activities in the bidder's plan which suggest that some additional activities should be added to its own Transition Plan. Alternatively the two parties could develop a joint plan as the CBI advocated in its 2006 report on contract management¹⁶. Plans should anticipate any requirements in the Contract which require work to be done by either party before financial close.

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¹⁶ CBI "Realising Best Practice on Procurement and Contract Management" November 2006