In the case of the new Royal Children's Hospital project, the specified length of the transition period (from the end of the construction phase to operational commencement) was three months (Clayton Utz 2007b: p.173). Within this period, the operator, as part of the Project Agreement, was provided with 30 continuous days of uninterrupted access (subject to the transition plan) to perform its transitional activities such as familiarising employees with the facility and other responsibilities including those that relate to training, conducting emergency drills, etc (Clayton Utz 2007b: p.173).
More generally, and with consideration to other PPPs, the three month transition period may be satisfactory for identifying issues that have not been anticipated during planning and construction stages, whilst providing a reasonable timeframe for developing strategies to manage these situations e.g. those arising from technical complications. Three months may be sufficient for the private partner to inform the public partner of matters that may prevent it from attaining agreed service delivery standards as well as giving the public partner enough time to deploy additional resources (if needed) to monitor the situation and adjust its contingency planning commitment.