Charter Set up a Planning Committee and establish parameters	Risk and Impact Complete a Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis	Strategy Document the organisation strategy to BCP

Business Continuity Plans should define the actions and resources that are required to achieve the organisation’s objectives. These should include the period from the initial response to the normal resumption of business. An effective business continuity planning strategy should provide the required infrastructure to support recovery and resumption of care delivery and critical processes within the required recovery period so that there is minimal disruption to care and operations.

The Business Continuity Plans (BCP) should only contain details that are essential to the implementation and operation of the business continuity process.

The following procedures are recommended as layers of your BCP model:

Emergency Management Plan - This document will set the framework for each individual organisation/service. This plan will direct the management of emergencies from both a strategic and operational perspective and will include roles and responsibilities, stakeholder details, links with other aged and community care providers, activation criteria, resources lists and external emergency services contacts.

• Evacuation Procedures - Resident/client evacuation procedures are a critical component of the business continuity procedures. Existing regulatory and legal requirements dictate that you have established evacuation procedures.

Continuity Procedures - Are implemented when regular business processes are unavailable.

Information Technology (IT) Disaster Recovery Procedures - Depending on the nature of the entity, there may be a need to develop IT disaster recovery procedures. The scope and nature of these procedures will be defined by the results of the business impact analysis.

The business continuity strategy and supporting plans should adopt a standard format that conforms across the aged care organisation and should be modular in design (plans interconnecting and supporting each other). This facilitates the ability to issue the sections on a need to know basis to the appropriate responsible people.

Develop a business continuity strategy with supporting plan(s) which document, test and reflect up to date processes and procedures in the following key areas:

• Organisation/Service Area Continuity Plan (this may be divided into further sections if a larger business management structure exists)
• Emergency Management Plan (Including evacuation procedures)
• Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)
• Business Resumption Plan (BRP)

Resource:
Example: Service Area Continuity Plan (Word Document 273Kb)
Example: Emergency Evacuation Plan (Word Document 464Kb)

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