Prepare yourself:
Major Incidents do occur from time to time. You don’t panic when a light bulb goes out because you know how to replace it. It’s always good to be prepared.
Have you ever thought what you would do if you found yourself in a situation that was out of the ordinary? For example, if you were flooded by a burst water main, if you were evacuated from your home following a gas leak in your road or you were stuck in a traffic jam for several hours during a heat wave.
Being ready and prepared in advance means that you will deal with the issue more effectively at the time. If you know what to do in advance, then you are more likely to make the right choices – and it can be very easy to prepare a plan for your home and family. Being prepared can help reduce the effects on people’s lives, reduce the need for support from others and enable you to support the vulnerable members of your street and community.
Prepare your community:
Community resilience encourages people to plan for local risks and be prepared to help themselves as a community if affected by an emergency. Experience has shown that, sometimes due to the scale and nature of an emergency, the normal response provided by the emergency services and the local authorities can be delayed. On these occasions anything the local community can do to support each other will help them deal with the emergency more effectively.
Communities could be based on town or parish geographic areas or smaller areas if it is felt it is needed due to a specific risk in the area. Community resilience measures can be as little as just having a designated point of contact within the area who can receive warnings and messages from emergency services and local authorities.
People in resilient communities are aware of the risks that may affect them. This helps them to take action to prepare for the consequences of emergencies resilient communities work in partnership with their local authority, and other relevant organisations.
These relationships ensure that the community complement the work of the emergency services, and it is done safely members of resilient communities are involved in influencing and making decisions affecting them. They take an interest in their community and act in its best interest.
Read more: Resilience in society: infrastructure, communities and businesses
Prepare your business:
Whatever type of business you run, the effects of serious operational disruption may threaten the long-term viability of your company if you haven’t made solid contingency plans that you can fall back on.
Business Continuity Management should be an integral part of your business planning, to ensure you can continue to deliver essential services and functions in the event of a major incident, then return to normal working as quickly as possible afterwards. This is the only way to safeguard your reputation, your customers and supplier relationships and the livelihood of your staff. Insurance often comes too late to protect these.
How prepared are you? Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do your staff know what to do in an emergency?
- Could you operate from a different location? Where would you go?
- Would you be able to recover systems and data?
- Are all parts of your business insured?
For more information, visit Business resilience planning assumptions.