This 10-minute plan that can reap long-term benefits in a catastrophe

A column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@theherald.co.uk

AYEAR after some of the worst flooding to hit the UK in recent history, now is a good time to ask if Scotland has learned lessons from the devastation caused by Storm Frank and if we’re better prepared for a repeat of such extreme weather conditions. This is made particularly pertinent following Storm Barbara over Christmas.

The answer is, unfortunately, no. Research has shown us that most businesses and community organisations are still unprepared for such weather. Despite a strategic framework of support available to small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) to help them better cope with emergencies and natural disasters, the take-up has been disappointingly low.

More worrying yet, the trend among SMEs is that they are struggling to prioritise the most basic procedures to safeguard against the impacts of flooding and storm damage. The desire and ambition to furnish businesses with guidance and excellent resilience planning formats is there; what is lacking is the time and resource to implement them.

With so few SMEs taking preventative action to protect against flooding or similar natural disasters, Business in the Community (BITC) Scotland is urging enterprises to boost their resilience by implementing a basic level of preventative action in the form of a business emergency resilience plan.

At BITC Scotland, we understand that most small businesses and community organisations have so much to do that they find it difficult to invest time in creating their own plan, something promptly produced if needed. A resilience plan can help reduce risk but it can also bring financial benefits by reducing insurance premiums and claims.

To address this, a10-minute plan was introduced by the Business Emergency Resilience Group (BERG), an initiative of The Prince of Wales comprising leaders of national and global businesses in the UK and representatives of government and government agencies who understand the importance of small business in their supply chain and as the backbone of local economies. Its strength and credibility come from senior leaders and strategic partners including Aviva, HSBC, Network Rail, the Scottish Government, Virgin Money, the British Damage Management Association, UK Government Departments as well as the Freight Transport Association and voluntary sector organisations.

BITC Scotland has convened these resources and expertise to make available to small businesses and communities additional, invaluable support in an emergency. Last winter, when businesses and communities were badly affected by floods, BERG was active north of the Border. We witnessed a large number of small businesses taking a long time to recover when, in some instances, recovery would have been much quicker had they taken 10 minutes to plan for such an event.

To help SMEs and community organisations build resilience and long term sustainability the BERG 10-minute plan is critical in assisting businesses to prepare for, and limit the potential disruption to, their enterprises. Industry buy-in and proper implementation will significantly increase winter resilience. BITC Scotland is testing the plan with the supply chain of larger businesses to increase its use among smaller businesses.

The level of emotional and financial hardship experienced by SMEs and wider communities not adequately prepared for floods and natural disasters should not be underestimated, placing even further emphasis on the importance of the 10-minute plan.

At the core of BERG’s leadership network is the desire to help businesses affected by crises by enabling larger organisations to assist the SMEs and communities with planning and resolution support. As we know all too well, environmental and technological failings can have disastrous effects on businesses if they are unprepared and do not have emergency plans and protocols. BERG enables organisations and their communities to prepare for, respond to and recover from such disruption.

One year on from last year’s extreme weather and the subsequent disruption, our message from BITC to SMEs is that they must, as a priority, implement this common-sense approach to crisis management. Mark Bevan is operations director of Business in the Community. The 10 minute plan is available for download at www.bitc.org