What is it?
Business Continuity Management (BCM) is about preparing business for potential incidents and identifies how organisations manage risks to ensure they can continue to deliver essential services in the event of an emergency, or during a disruption of normal day-to-day activities.
Having a robust Business Continuity Plan (BCP) containing all the information you need during and followoing an incident such as contact details and action cards. It will help you to respond and recover more effectively and efficiently, ensuring that customers, your brand, reputation and key activities are maintained, as well as your long-term business survival.
Having a well rehearsed plan is about having the right people, making the right decisions and taking the right actions at the right time.
Helping local businesses
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places, amongst other duties, a statutory responsibility on local authorities to promote business continuity to all businesses and voluntary sector organisations within their boundaries.
The council's Emergency Planning Unit has produced a booklet to fulfil that duty. This helps organisations to become more resilient, and helps Liverpool to remain as one of the UK's leading business and investment locations.
- Building Business Resilience - A business continuity booklet for local businesses and voluntary organisations.
- Working with organisations - Information about the Local Resilience Forum and Community Risk Register.
Liverpool Business Continuity Management Forum (LBCMF)
The LBCMF is free to join and free to attend. Held quarterly, you will receive presentations and information on various business continuity related topics.
The aim of the forum is to:
- Promote joint working and share knowledge.
- Embed the business continuity message within public sector organisations, commercial enterprises and voluntary agencies in Liverpool.
- Develop and maintain community resilience and preparedness for business interrupting incidents.
Contact 225 6008 or email BCM@liverpool.gov.uk if you would like to join.
Business continuity in the council
The council has its own Corporate Business Continuity Plan covering a strategic level response for the whole of the council should a major incident affect a multi-business unit location. The plan would be invoked to quickly get key services up and running if, for example, an office is out of action for a number of days due to flooding.
Want to know more?
For more information about business continuity, contact 225 6008 or email BCM@liverpool.gov.uk.
City centre emergencies - evacuation zones
We have produced a zoning map for local businesses which should be used together with the Liverpool Priority Alert Scheme. It ensures that details of any incident, along with necessary information, can be given to people in the city centre.
You should make sure that your staff are aware of the zones and your position within the and place it in a prominent position. The zoning map should be used as part of your own emergency contingency plans.
What if an evacuation of my zone is required?
Implement your building evacuation plan immediately. Your plan should include:
- How you will ensure that all staff are aware of your plan.
- Identify staff with specific responsibility for building evacuation.
- Identify appropriate fire assembly points, a safe distance from your building.
- Identify bomb assembly points in adjacent zones to yours, and possibly an assembly point outside the city centre.
- Establish how to alert your staff and visitors of the need to evacuate, and chosen assembly points.
- How you will ensure that all staff can reach the assembly point.
- Create specific procedures to help staff and visitors with disabilities.
- Establish how you will account for all your staff at the assembly point.
- Decide how you will communicate with your staff whilst they are out of your premises.
- Regularly test your evacuation plan.
Priority Alert Scheme
The scheme is to warn and inform businesses in the city centre of any alert or incident in the area and manage the incident and self evacuation of the affected zones.
Merseyside Police send priority alert messages for the city centre to all people who have registered with the scheme. They can be sent via SMS text messages to mobile phones, email or pagers. The alerts give the following information:
- Details of the incident, location and which zone it is in.
- Zones to be evacuated.
- Updated information on the situation and recovery phase.
- Details of when it is safe to return to zones.
- Details of any security arrangements in place.
How to join the scheme
- Register online
- Call Vocal Communications on 0800 035 0081.