Lessons Learnt

The main lessons learnt by each Council is outlined below.

Involve the right people with the right skills.
Business continuity plan needs to include pandemic risk.
Look after your people.
Early transparent engagement and communication with feedback loop.

Structure with key relationships and communication with agencies.
Pandemic sub-plan in the disaster management plan.
Communication management must be well done.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help when needed.

Adaptability is critical specially for small council.
Trust was really important (private information of others) – external and internal (e.g. job security).
Empathy for others (especially neighbouring councils) with critical circumstances.

Include pandemic in disaster management plan and business continuity plan.
Lead by example.
Immediacy of response and reprioritisation of work.
Celebrate successes.

Value in disaster management and business continuity planning and testing, including out of the box thinking.
Importance in flexibility and resilience of Information Technology systems.
Support, trust and flexibility for staff is critical to manage sometimes unknown situations.

Regularly review and exercise the business continuity plan.
Ensure decisions and actions are supported by relevant risk assessment.
Communication at all levels is critical.