Business continuity management (BCM)
The importance of business continuity management
Business continuity management (BCM) is the name given to the process that helps you to:
- Reduce the chances of a disruption
- Respond more effectively when disruptions and emergencies occur
- Recover from emergencies and disruptions more quickly
As well as being good business practice, local authority-maintained schools are required to have a business continuity plan under the Schools Financial Value Standard.
Since it's not possible to write a plan for every possible scenario, BCM helps you to mitigate the effects of disruption which generally means one or more of the following:
- An inability to carry out daily activities
- Shortage of staff due to illness, or strike action
- Loss of building, or part of building or access to the building
- Adverse publicity and/or reputational impacts
- Loss of ICT
- Loss of critical supplier or partner