Business continuity planning
What is a business continuity plan (BCP)?
A business continuity plan is usually defined as a number of plans and actions to help ensure services continue to be delivered in the event of an 'incident' to those people who require these services.
This webpage is designed to support adult social care providers in the event of 'incident' which may result in a service interruption, such as a power outage or a environmental issue i.e. flood or fire.
In adult social care, a good BCP will:
- Help to protect the people we support and people we employ.
- Help to protect assets.
- Help to ensure services can respond quickly and remain operational in the event of an incident to those persons most in need.
- Help to ensure services recover as quickly as possible following the incident.
BCP top-tips
- Review - keep your BCP regularly under review and up to date.
- Test - test your plan in advance, so you can make improvements.
- Role - ensure your staff know their roles & responsibilities.
- Train - ensure your staff are trained and competent to carry out the plan.
Your BCP needs to be accessible - staff should know how to access an electronic copy and a back up copy in the event of a power outage.
Adult social care providers should also consider data storage and information sharing - for example, what information could you share with the council about somebody who purchases their own care and how would you share this?
Communication is key - your list of key contacts should be up to date, this includes the people you support, your staff and other key stakeholders such as the council.
How will I know if there is a local issue?
In the event of an local issue, which may may result in a service interruption, the Council will send an email.
The email will be sent from ascincidentmanagement@staffordshire.gov.uk to impacted adult social care providers, using our established mailing list.
Within the body of the email we will advise you if the email is for information and/or action.
We will subsequently confirm once the incident is over.
If you are concerned, your email is not correct and/or you require another person adding, please contact us.
Further information
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- Locally, we have built an app containing emergency telephone number for local providers, in the event standard phone lines are not useable for any reason. Please be advised, this information will not be used for any other purpose.
Once every six months, providers will receive an email to check:
- Is the contact information correct?
- Are you happy for your details to continue to be stored on the app?
If you need to change your contact details at any other time, please contact us.
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We know that the weather across the winter months can impact our most vulnerable residents and place additional pressures on the health and social care system.
The Council will contact providers in the event of specific weather warnings being issued (as per the below), via an email from ascincidentmanagement@staffordshire.gov.uk. If the alert period is extended, our Information for providers webpage will be updated accordingly.
Please note, these warnings will only typically be issued during standard office hours, so providers are encouraged to sign up for alerts directly.
Cold-Health Alerts
UKHSA have launched the Cold-Health Alerts to help with planning and preparedness across the winter months (1 November 2023 – 31 March 2024).
The alert service has 4 colour states: green (preparedness), yellow (response), amber (enhanced response) and red (emergency response).
The council will contact providers in the event of an amber or red alert being issued.
Adult social care providers can can sign up to receive alerts directly and routinely check in for live dates using the interactive map function.
To help adult social care providers plan and respond, the following information may be useful:
Met Office updates
The Met Office frequently sends out weather warning updates, for example in the event of a storm, heavy rain and winds and snow, which may impact some or all of Staffordshire. The potential impacts may include, travel disruption, damage to buildings and loss of power to services and homes.
The council will contact providers in the event of specific yellow, amber and/or red warnings being issued where it is anticipated it will impact on the provision of care and support, for example where utilities may be affected / potential outages and / or significant travel disruptions.
The Met Office has a host of useful, practical advice and support, to help during periods of adverse weather.
Adult social care providers can sign up to receive updates directly and routinely check in for live updates using the interactive map function.
Flood warnings
Adult social care providers, alongside other members of the local community, can sign up for free flood warnings via the national on-line service.
All you need is the address of your property / service(s), and email address and your preferred method of contact.
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To support the adult social care sector, as part of their Energy Aware campaign, OFGEM and the Energy Networks Association (ENA) have produced the following documents:
Further information, advice and guidance can be found at:
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On Thursday 15 December 2022, colleagues from Staffordshire County Council, Staffordshire's Civil Contingencies Unit and Staffordshire's Association of Registered Care Providers, hosted a BCP webinar.
To view the webinar, please visit Registration. You will need to provide your name and email address in order to view the webinar.
We have also produced a series of FAQ's (260KB) in response to the most common questions posed during the webinar and by adult social care settings, subsequently.
To support adult social care providers, we have also compiled a useful checklist (195KB) of things to think about when reviewing your BCP.
Contact us
If you have any questions or concerns about BCP, including in the event of a power outage, please do not hesitate to contact us.