Risk Ready Businesses
Our ‘Risk Ready Businesses’ project supports businesses to prepare for, and respond to, incidents that can cause disruption like loss of staff, premises, IT or suppliers.
Businesses will get access to free webinars, videos and resources to help them:
- identify key risks
- take the right action during an incident
- know who to contact in an emergency
Businesses can sign up to free webinars on a range of topics on the following dates (all take place between 6 - 7pm) by emailing communityresilience@leics.gov.uk
Frequently asked questions
What is the Risk Ready Businesses project?
Risk Ready Businesses is a new project being run by the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland to help local businesses prepare for, respond to and recover from disruptions such as flooding, cyber attacks and power outages.
The project provides practical, free tools, expert support, webinars and opportunities for businesses to connect and share good practice around resilience.
What is business continuity and why do I need it?
Business continuity is about identifying the parts of your business you can’t afford to lose - like premises, staff and IT systems - and planning what you’d do if an incident occurs.
By creating a Business Continuity Plan, you can put steps in place to deal with the unexpected.
What is a Business Continuity Plan?
A Business Continuity Plan is your organisation’s ‘safety net’. It helps you to:
- keep operating during unexpected disruption
- reduce downtime and financial loss
- protect staff, customers and key data
- safeguard your reputation by demonstrating reliability to partners and clients
- recover more quickly after an emergency
My business only has two employees. How can this help me?
Even micro businesses can benefit from having some level of business continuity planning in place – and even short disruptions can have a lasting impact.
By creating your own Business Continuity Plan, you’ll be more resilient, prepared and confident in the face of the unexpected.
What types of incidents should we plan for?
A good Business Continuity Plan should be able to adapt to any kind of incident. However, a bespoke plan will encourage you to think about the specific risks to your business and the key risks facing businesses in LLR.
These include:
- flooding and other severe weather events
- cyber attacks and IT outages
- utility failures e.g. electricity, water, telecoms
- loss of key staff or partners, e.g. due to major disease outbreak or pandemic
- terrorist attack
- major transport incident, e.g. affecting suppliers
What key elements should be included in our Business Continuity Plan?
Your plan should outline how you are going to invoke the plan, communicate, manage the response and implement key strategies for recovery (these might include remote working and back-ups). It will also identify roles and responsibilities.
As part of this, it helps to carry out a risk assessment and Business Impact Analysis.
How often should we test and update the plan?
Your plan should be tested and reviewed regularly - at least once a year, or more often if there’s a significant change in operations, staff, technology or risks.
These tests might involve something as simple as ensuring that you have the right phone numbers for staff members and that you can contact people out of hours.
Do suppliers need their own continuity plans?
Ideally, you should check that your key suppliers have business continuity in place as their disruption may affect you. If you’re a supplier yourself, you may be required to demonstrate that you have a Business Continuity Plan.
Who is responsible for business continuity within my organisation?
Ownership typically sits with senior management (owner or director), and requires input from department heads, IT specialists and other critical personnel.
Won't my insurance cover this?
It’s unlikely that your insurance will be able to help with a business continuity response, unless you have business interruption insurance.
However, having business continuity procedures in place can help to reduce insurance premiums.
Some cyber insurance may cover financial losses from cyber attacks, like data breaches and ransomware, and may also provide support before and after an incident – but this depends on the level of cover.
What support is included in the project?
The programme gives businesses access to:
- a simple, easy‑to‑use business continuity toolkit
- 3 webinars to help you identify risks and take steps to be prepared
- tools and guidance to help businesses develop bespoke Business Continuity Plans
- an online library of resilience resources
All activities are free to participate in.
Who is the toolkit designed for?
The toolkit is designed specifically for small and medium‑sized enterprises / businesses (SMEs).
It’s intentionally simple, practical and suitable for businesses with limited time or capacity.
What will the business continuity toolkit help me to do?
It will provide tools and guidance to help you:
- identify your key risks
- outline actions to take before, during and after disruption
- assign roles and responsibilities
- list essential contacts, suppliers and resources
- respond quickly and consistently – and recover faster
Examples within the template will help you tailor it to your business.
Does it cost anything to take part?
No. All elements of the project - including the toolkit and webinars - are completely free.
The programme is funded through the Government’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) Local Resilience Forum Innovation Grant.
How do I register my interest?
Businesses can register their interest by emailing communityresilience@leics.gov.uk
Where can I get further advice?
There should be enough information on our website to help you develop your own business continuity procedures, including links to lots of useful sources.