Training staff to understand their roles, and reinforcing their knowledge of how to deal effectively with any incident that is likely to cause significant harm is absolutely key to getting organisations back up and running, maintaining resident and stakeholder confidence, reducing costs and the impact of reputational damage.
The Global pandemic of 2020 has brought a significant number of challenges to the ever increasing risk profile of the housing sector and many organisations probably feel as though their Business Continuity / Emergency Plans have been tested throughout the lockdown period. However, whilst many organisations have been able to quickly mobilise their staff to work remotely, this hasn’t really tested the full extent of their Business Continuity Plans (BCP) or Emergency Plans.
In the event of a large-scale flood or fire under the constraints of a global pandemic and potentially a lockdown, how would your Business Continuity Plan respond? In the event of the senior management team or crisis team being unavailable due to illness, who would assume gold command in the event of a serious incident? These are just a couple of examples that highlight the importance of reviewing and revising your Business Continuity arrangements.
Gallagher Housing and Gallagher Risk Management Services are working with a large number of Housing Associations across the UK to review their current Business Continuity/Emergency Plans. We fully understand that remote working is likely to be in place for the foreseeable future and with local lockdowns now becoming more frequent this has impacted on existing business continuity and emergency planning arrangements.
Gallagher has an experienced team of BCP specialists with extensive housing knowledge who are able to carry out full reviews of your existing arrangements, and to carry out real life scenario testing virtually.
With the winter months quickly approaching and with the current constraints of the Global pandemic, we expect to see Housing Associations put under increasing pressure, particularly if needing to then manage a crisis on top of already difficult circumstances.
Having a robust Emergency/Business Continuity Plan in place will certainly assist you in getting your organisation back up and running quicker, improving stakeholder confidence and helping to keep any additional costs as low as possible.
