Business Continuity Policy

Aim

The aim of Cavendish Homecare is to ensure that it has appropriate business continuity management plans and contingency arrangements in place so that it can maintain its services or recover its functions quickly in the event of an emergency or crisis.

Background

Cavendish Homecare understands business continuity management to refer to the need for organisations to be suitably prepared for emergencies where their ability to continue to provide a service may be temporarily disrupted.  The contingency arrangements take the form of having suitable plans in place whereby they can recover their core or key business functions and return to normal functioning as quickly as possible.

Cavendish Homecare recognises that business continuity management goes hand in hand with emergency planning and is a key element in copying with threats such as power cuts or floods, heatwaves and severe winter weather, IT and telecommunications failures, a pandemic, and staffing crises.  In all circumstances it is imperative that managers and staff know exactly what to d in order to ensure the safety of clients and to return the service to normal as soon as possible after the emergency has passed.

Cavendish Homecare recognises that business continuity is an important element in compliance with the registration requirements of the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Policy

In Cavendish Homecare:

• Business continuity plans will be developed and kept up to date. They will be designed to ensure that the organisation can maintain its critical services during a crisis or can return to normal functioning as soon as possible after an emergency where its services are disrupted.
• The aim of the planning process will be to identify, assess and minimise business continuity risk.
• Plans should be based on a risk analysis that involves:

1. 1. Identifying the ‘critical points’ that are vital in the running of the organisation and in delivering its services
   2. a business impact analysis identifying possible risks to each critical point
   3. a reasonable recovery time needed to re-establish each function
   4. a plan for mitigating the risk for each critical point

• The business impact analysis should enable a qualitative assessment of risk of the critical points if disrupted. The following criteria should be used:

1. 1. Critical, core or key functions – these services or functions are vital to the delivery of care and must be recovered immediately as the first priority of the organisation.
   2. Essential functions – these services or functions are essential to the running of the service and must be recovered within 24 hours.
   3. Necessary functions – these services are not critical or essential but are important to the running of the service and must be recovered within two to three days.
   4. Desirable or routine functions – these services should be recovered as a minor priority once all of the above functions have been recovered.

• All plans should be achievable and realistic.
• Critical business processes and functions are those that have the greatest impact on the organisation’s operations and potential for recovery. They directly involve the ability to deliver safe care for clients. For Cavendish Homecare key business functions include IT systems and communications systems which are essential for organising and tracking home visits and communication with staff working in the community and with service users.
• The plan should include the resources needed to resume an activity or function after an incident. These will not necessarily be the same as those required during normal operations as additional resources may be required to resolve backlogs.   Resources may include:

1. 1. people, including staff and skills
   2. technology including IT and telecommunication resources
   3. critical information and data storage
   4. suppliers and partners

• Risks may include:

1. 1. loss of staff
   2. loss of IT systems
   3. loss of key suppliers
   4. disruption to transport

• In any situation, the critical or core business continuity objective will include:

1. 1. Compliance with legal, regulatory and contractual obligations
   2. Ensuring the safety of clients and staff
   3. Ensuring effective and competent incident management

• Plans will be developed and kept under review by the senior management. Departmental managers, supervisors and front-line staff should cooperate with the planning process.

Date:  January 2024

Version:  4 (Review)

Source: ECM