[BCM] [JHA] [E2] [C6] Business Continuity Plan Development Phase for Business Continuity Management Planning Methodology for Jamiyah Home for the Aged

Strategies only protect residents if the people on duty know what to do when something goes wrong. The Plan Development (PD) phase turns the strategies approved for Jamiyah Home for the Aged (JHA) into written business continuity plans that staff can use at any hour. This chapter answers the question "What does plan development entail?" in three stages, adds an illustrative plan outline for one of JHA's critical functions, and sets out requirements specific to the Home.

Introduction

For JHA, plans must work in the hardest conditions the Home faces: at night, with a reduced team, residents asleep and the office closed. Everything in this chapter, including team names, roles and plan contents, is illustrative.

What Does Plan Development Entail?

Stage 1: Decide how the plan is organised

The first stage sets the structure that all plans will share, so that staff moving between areas find the same layout everywhere. It has two parts.

Design the plan template. The organisation's business continuity management (BCM) coordinator drafts a standard template. For JHA, a practical template might include: purpose and scope; activation criteria and who may activate the plan; the recovery team and contacts; immediate actions for the first hour; actions for the first 24 hours; actions until normal service resumes; resources required, drawn from the Business Impact Analysis (BIA); communication and reporting steps, including notification of the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF); and appendices such as contact lists, floor plans and forms. Each section should begin with a short checklist, followed by detail for those who need it.

Determine the recovery organisation. The coordinator also defines the teams that will manage a disruption. A three-level structure suits a home of JHA's size. A crisis management team, led by the Superintendent or a senior representative of Jamiyah Singapore, makes strategic decisions, deals with MSF, the managing agent and the media, and authorises spending. An emergency response team, led by the senior staff member on duty at the time, protects residents and staff in the first minutes and hours, including evacuation if needed. Business unit recovery teams, led by the business unit BCM coordinators, restore their own functions, such as care, kitchen, premises and administration. Each role has a named holder and at least one alternate, and the senior person on duty at night has clear authority to act until the crisis team convenes.

Stage 2: Run a plan-writing workshop

The second stage equips plan writers to complete the template well. The organisation BCM coordinator runs a workshop for the business unit BCM coordinators. A half-day session might cover: the purpose of plans and how they link to the risk register and BIA; a walk-through of the template section by section; a worked example, such as the outline later in this chapter; common mistakes, such as writing for the day shift only or listing people instead of roles; and time for each writer to start drafting with support.

After the workshop, each business unit BCM coordinator completes the template for their area, consulting colleagues on both shifts. For example, the kitchen lead at JHA might sit with a night-shift carer to understand what residents can safely eat if the kitchen is unavailable before breakfast. The coordinator collects drafts, checks them for consistency and resolves gaps between plans, such as two plans assuming the same person is free at the same time.

Stage 3: Finalise and validate

The third stage confirms that each plan is complete and covers what it should. Business unit BCM coordinators and the heads of their units review each plan against a short checklist. Does it cover every CBF in its area? Does it meet the recovery time objective (RTO) and minimum service level from Chapter 4? Does it implement the strategies approved in Chapter 5? Are contacts current? Can the staff normally on duty follow it at night? Is the MSF reporting step clear? Once validated, plans are signed off, issued in print and electronic form, and placed where they will be found: at the nurses' station, in the office and in the crisis team's grab bag.

Keeping plans usable

Validation also checks usability. A plan that runs to forty pages will not be read during an emergency. For JHA, keep each plan to a few pages of action checklists, with supporting detail moved to appendices. Include version numbers and review dates on the front page so staff can see at a glance that the copy they hold is current, and collect and destroy old copies when a new version is issued. A single master contact list, referenced by every plan rather than copied into each one, reduces the work of keeping numbers up to date.

Illustrative Plan Outline: CBF-03 Meals, Nutrition and Hydration

The outline below shows how the template might be applied to one function. It is illustrative and would be completed with JHA's own details.

1. Purpose and scope: to keep residents fed and hydrated, while respecting their dietary and religious requirements, when normal kitchen operation or food supply is disrupted.
2. Activation: kitchen unusable (for example, after a fire in the kitchen area, R1, or a gas or power failure, R3); food supplier fails to deliver (R5); kitchen staff unavailable (R4); suspected food safety incident (R5). The senior staff member on duty may activate the plan and must inform the Superintendent.
3. Recovery team: kitchen lead (team leader), alternate kitchen staff, senior carer on duty, administration officer for procurement.
4. First hour: confirm the cause and expected duration; check residents due a meal or snack, especially those with diabetes or swallowing difficulties; issue drinking water and ready-to-eat items from the reserve; isolate and keep samples of any suspect food.
5. First 24 hours: contact the alternative caterer with numbers and dietary needs; arrange delivery times around normal meal times; set up a temporary serving area; record what each resident has eaten and drunk; if a food safety incident is suspected, follow the incident procedure and report as required.
6. Until normal service: continue alternative supply; arrange kitchen repair or cleaning; restock the reserve; confirm the kitchen is safe before resuming.
7. Resources: reserve food and water list, alternative caterer contract and contacts, resident dietary list, disposable utensils, cool boxes.
8. Communication: inform staff on duty and the next shift; reassure residents; notify MSF if the incident meets reporting criteria; brief volunteers bringing food so donations are coordinated.
9. Appendices: resident dietary list, reserve stock checklist, supplier contacts, incident report template.

Requirements Specific to JHA

• Regulatory reporting built in: every plan includes steps for notifying MSF of serious incidents and submitting the incident report within 24 hours, as the Code of Practice for Social Residential Homes requires, with the contents the Code lists, such as the nature of the incident, impact assessment, immediate actions, and stakeholders notified.
• Plans as procedures: the Code expects business continuity procedures to be reviewed at least once a year, and for all staff to be aware of, trained in, and follow them. Plans should therefore be written as procedures staff can be trained on, not as policy statements.
• Designed for the night shift: the first-hour checklist in each plan must be achievable by the staff on duty at night, without office support.
• Residents first: each plan identifies residents who need priority attention, such as those with limited mobility, cognitive impairment or specific medical needs, drawing on the printed emergency resident list from strategy group S4.
• Clear and accessible language: plans should use plain words and short steps so that staff of different backgrounds and relief workers can follow them quickly.

Summary Table

Conclusion

Plan Development gives JHA a consistent set of plans, a clear recovery organisation and a validation step that confirms each plan meets its targets. The test of a good plan at JHA is simple: can the senior person on duty at three in the morning pick it up and protect residents in the first hour? The next phase finds out, through testing and exercising.

Sources

• Code of Practice for Social Residential Homes (First Edition)

Continue reading: Chapter 7, Testing and Exercising Phase for Business Continuity Management Planning Methodology for Jamiyah Home for the Aged, describes the types of exercises JHA can use and what the regulator expects regarding testing.