A service interruption response plan should be short, clear, easily understandable and easily available, given it could be activated at short notice in circumstances in which the personnel responsible for the plan's implementation may be under significant pressure.
The key issues to consider in developing and maintaining a service interruption response plan in the context of a Partnerships Victoria project include the following:
• What are the potential events that may trigger activation of the service interruption response plan?
• What immediate actions should be taken to respond to an interruption to service delivery, before taking steps to stabilise or restore critical services?
• How should various components of the services be prioritised under the service interruption response plan?
• What are the roles and responsibilities of the government party personnel responsible for activating and implementing the service interruption response plan? Do these personnel understand their roles and responsibilities? Do they have appropriate delegated authority for their roles and responsibilities?
• Who is authorised to activate the plan?
• What communications are required to activate and implement the service interruption response plan?
• What communications to stakeholders, the public and the private party are required when the service interruption response plan is implemented? A proactive communication strategy can prevent the government party becoming inundated with incoming queries from concerned end users, the public and the media, and can prevent a loss of public confidence in the government agency.
• Is the service interruption response plan available to the people who need to invoke it?
• Is the service interruption response plan integrated with business continuity plans for core or similar services provided by the government party?
• How and when will the service interruption response plan be tested? Testing is essential to ensure the plan can be implemented as planned and personnel are familiar with its operation.
• What are the private party's contingency plans and are the private party's contingency plans consistent with the government party's contingency plans?
When a service interruption occurs, the initial priority should be to mitigate any immediate safety risks. To this end, it may be necessary for the contract management team to take action, make decisions, or approve action by the private party without having the opportunity to fully consider the contractual implications. Where possible this should be done in consultation with the senior responsible owner and, once the immediate danger has been averted, the contract management team should promptly revert to operating within the contractual framework. Within this framework, the specific tasks required to further respond to the service interruption will significantly depend upon the nature and circumstances of the service interruption. In this context, the following issues should be considered:
• What are the time periods or targets for stabilising or restoring critical components of the services?
• During the period of service interruption will replacement services be provided by the government party, will the private party provide the services to the extent that it is able, or will a combination of these solutions be used?
• What resources are required to restore delivery of each critical component of the services? How will these resources be mobilised?
• What service specifications and service level targets should be set for each critical component of the services during the response period? Have relevant stakeholders been informed that these service specifications and targets will apply during the response period? In some cases during such temporary operating conditions, acceptable service specifications and service levels may be less stringent than those imposed on the private party in the relevant project deed.
• What information is required when implementing the service interruption response plan? These information requirements should be considered when developing the government party's knowledge and information management strategy, discussed in Chapter 7.
• How will the government party exit from the service interruption response plan? This may be by the private party restoring services, consistent with the services specification, or by establishing an ongoing source of alternative services.