The Surge and Rapid Response Team (SRRT) is a valuable resource but should be there for genuine need and not as a containment for the lack of operational capability needed to deal with demand that should have been predicted or absorbed. The capability to understand and deal with demand is a key priority for government organisations. The ODP is responsible for the SRRT, which helps departments deal with significant increases in demand, including seasonal peaks such as Winter Fuel payments, as well as those caused by emerging crises, such as the collapse of an airline. A benefit of using the SRRT is that its staff can be deployed immediately–for example, they are already security cleared and have contracts allowing them to be deployed nationally and internationally at short notice. Whereas recruiting staff or using a third party could be more time consuming and costly. The SRRT is clearly a valuable resource, and there are many examples of its successful deployment, but departments should not be repeatedly using the SRRT for peaks in demand that ought to have been foreseen and planned for, or which could have been absorbed in other ways. recommendation The ODP should conduct analysis of who is using the SRRT and why they are using it to identify where they need to work with departments to increase their operational capability to better deal with variation in demand. 6 1 The role of the Operational Delivery Profession and its members Introduction