Business Continuity Management (BCM) is defined as the capability of the organization to continue the delivery of products or services at acceptable predefined levels following a disruptive incident.

What is BCM?

  • BCM is a management process that identifies potential impacts that threaten the normal functioning of an organisation
  • provides a framework for building resilience and recovery to safeguard the interests of staff, customers and reputation

How can BCM Plans help?

  • a plan will identify individual roles and responsibilities, including who makes decisions
  • it will show what functions must be maintained to keep the business going
  • it will prioritise which functions must be reinstated first and the resources needed
  • it will help businesses continue during a disruption and recover quickly

BCM in the City of Wolverhampton Council

The council has a corporate BCM plan in place with supporting departmental plans. The BCM plans are invoked if either:

  • the incident causes service disruption requiring the BCM plans to be activated
  • the incident is a council incident which causes service disruption requiring a BCM response

What risks are considered?

The following generic risks should be considered:

  • large-scale temporary absence of staff
  • permanent or long-term loss of staff
  • denial of site or geographical area
  • flooding
  • severe weather
  • loss of mains electricity
  • loss of IT
  • disruption to transport
  • loss of mains water and sewerage
  • loss of availability of oil and fuel
  • loss of telephone/ mobile telephone communications

The government encourages all organisations to have a clear understanding of Business Continuity Management and has published the Business Continuity Guide for Dummies in association with the Business Continuity Institutes and Emergency Planning Society.

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