Business continuity

It's important to update your plan regularly: you don't want to be in a crisis with an out-of-date plan. Remember, you'll need to update it when key personnel, or key clients or suppliers change, or when you move to a different location. You may wish to expand it and add local information, or fresh ideas to make it even more useful.

Consider how you would respond to the following if an incident occurred:

• what would the emergency services need to know? (note: they also offer security and evacuation advice)
• how would your local authority respond to a major incident or terrorist attack?
• how could you and your neighbouring businesses help each other?
• what information would utility companies need?
• what information would your insurer need from you?
• who else would be affected by your decisions - your customers/suppliers?
• how would your customers/suppliers want you to communicate information?

Planning for 'worst-case' scenarios

Remember to plan for 'worst-case' scenarios:

• if you plan for a fire destroying a whole building, your plan should also work if only 1 or 2 rooms have been seriously damaged
• if you plan to work at an associate’s office for 2 months, could you also work there for 5 days?

Planning for a 'worst-case' scenario will help you understand which incidents pose more of a risk to your business, and whether you can reduce that risk so that your company can survive.

Also see

• People and communities
• Information for businesses
• Emergency contacts
• What to do after a flood
• North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum (NYLRF)
• York Flood Alleviation Scheme (FAS)
• The Institute of Risk Management
• The Emergency Planning Society