A strategy that lives only in meeting notes will not help a night-shift supervisor at three in the morning. The CM Plan Development (PD) phase turns the decisions of the earlier phases into a document that people can find, understand and use under pressure. This chapter describes the steps for carrying out the phase at Jamiyah Home for the Aged (JHA) and gives an example of each.
By this point, the project has produced several separate pieces: the ranked scenarios CS-01 to CS-08 from the Crisis Scenario Risk Analysis and Review (CRA) phase; the critical business functions CBF-01 to CBF-25, tiers and recovery objectives from the Business Impact Analysis (BIA) phase; and the response protocols, strategy, mitigation measures M1 to M5 and communication plan from the CM Strategy (BCS) phase. The PD phase brings them together in one plan and prepares the people who will use it.
The test of a crisis plan is not whether it is complete but whether it can be used. A plan with two hundred pages is complete and useless. A plan that fits the way people work, that can be opened in seconds and that tells each person what to do first, is more likely to be followed. The steps below aim at that second kind of plan.
The BCM Institute source page for this phase describes a sequence of six activities: document the plan; make it clear and concise; make it accessible; distribute it; train people; and review and update it regularly. The page does not number them, but they follow a natural order from writing to use to upkeep. The sections below follow it.
The first step builds the plan as the main reference for the crisis management team and relevant personnel. The source page lists the contents: an executive summary; the crisis scenarios and their potential impacts; response protocols for each scenario, with roles, responsibilities, action steps and decision-making hierarchies; the communication plan from the strategy phase; resource allocation; business continuity plans for critical functions where applicable; and appendices with supporting material such as contact lists, message templates and decision flowcharts.
Example for JHA: The plan might have seven components, which Chapter 9 refers to by code.
| Code | Component | Illustrative JHA content |
|---|---|---|
| PL-1 | Executive summary | One page: purpose, scope, how to activate, who leads, and where to find everything else |
| PL-2 | Crisis scenarios | CS-01 to CS-08, with triggers and the critical business functions each affects |
| PL-3 | Response protocols | One protocol per scenario, with activation criteria, roles, action steps, decision hierarchy and resources |
| PL-4 | Communication plan | Audiences, messages, channels, spokesperson and deputy, fact-sheet template |
| PL-5 | Resource allocation | Priority for Tier 1 functions, staff and supply reserves, emergency contacts for suppliers |
| PL-6 | Business continuity plans | Plans for critical functions supplied by the BCM team, including manual workarounds |
| PL-7 | Appendices | Contact lists, message templates, decision flowcharts, decision log, incident log and status board forms |
Two additions strengthen the document. The first is a simple set of activation levels, so that the home can scale its response to the event and does not treat every problem as a full crisis. The second is a description of where the crisis management team meets and what it needs there.
| Level | Meaning | Illustrative action |
|---|---|---|
| 1: Alert | An event may develop into a crisis | Superintendent informed; owner watches the situation; no formal meeting |
| 2: Activation | A scenario trigger is met, or a Tier 1 function is at risk | Crisis management team convenes; managing agent informed; protocol begins; log opened |
| 3: Full crisis | Serious harm, evacuation, major publicity or regulator involvement | Full team and managing agent engaged; families and MSF notified; media statement prepared |
For the meeting place, the plan might name a primary room in the home, such as a meeting room with a phone line and printed copies of the plan, and an alternative location, for example at the managing agent's premises, if the building cannot be used. The room does not need to be elaborate. It needs a table, a wall for a status board, a way to take calls, and paper forms to help the team keep a log.
The second step makes the plan easy to scan under pressure. The source page recommends bullet points, numbered lists and headings. Plain language helps too: short sentences, one instruction per line, and no jargon a new member of staff wouldn't know. A useful device is the action card, a single page for each role that lists the first actions that person must take when the plan is activated.
Example for JHA: The plan might include an action card for the person in charge on shift, the Superintendent, the care and nursing lead, the administrator who keeps the log, and the facilities representative. The card for the person in charge on the shift might open with three lines: ensure residents are safe; call the Superintendent and tell them the facts known so far; start a written log with the time. If staff use more than one working language, the cards for frontline roles might also be provided in those languages, so that no one has to translate during an emergency. The project team should have someone who did not help write it read the plan, such as a newer member of staff, and ask them to identify the first action for each scenario. Where they hesitate, the plan needs work.
The third step stores the plan where authorised people can reach it easily. The source page suggests a central location such as a shared drive or online platform. For JHA, there is a catch that the plan must anticipate: scenario CS-06 includes the loss of information technology and communications, and CS-05 includes the loss of power. A plan stored only on a network is unreachable in exactly the events when it is needed.
Example for JHA: The plan might be held in three forms. A controlled electronic copy is kept in a secure shared location with access limited to the crisis management team and department heads. Printed copies of the executive summary, the action cards and the protocols are kept in agreed places, for example the Superintendent's office, the nursing station and the managing agent's office. A copy on the phones of key staff, in a form that works offline, completes the set. The contact lists in PL-7 hold personal data about residents' next of kin and staff, so they need tighter control than the rest of the plan: limited access, numbered copies, and a routine for destroying superseded printouts.
The fourth step gives copies, or access, to everyone involved in the response. The source page names the crisis management team, key department heads and anyone involved in the response. Record distribution, including who holds which version and a version number on every page, so no one works from an old plan.
Example for JHA: The distribution list might include the Superintendent and deputy, the care and nursing lead and deputy, shift supervisors, the administrator, the facilities and information technology representatives, the counsellor, the managing agent's representative and communications contact, and the BCM team. Each recipient might acknowledge receipt in writing and confirm they have read the executive summary and their own action card. The home might also decide, with the managing agent, whether and when to share the plan or a summary with MSF. The pages read for this eBook do not say whether MSF expects to see such a plan [verify].
The fifth step ensures people understand the plan, what it contains, and their own role in it. A plan that is distributed but never explained is likely to be ignored. Training should reach everyone with a role, including night and weekend staff and volunteers who supervise residents, and it should be repeated for new joiners.
Example for JHA: The table gives an illustrative training approach. The frequencies are examples only.
| Audience | Content | Illustrative frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Crisis management team | Whole plan, decision-making, logging, communication, use of the meeting room | Annually, and on joining |
| Shift supervisors and persons in charge | Activation, first actions, escalation, action cards | Annually, and on joining; short refreshers each quarter |
| All care and support staff | Executive summary, how to raise an alarm, how to report concerns, what the home will tell families | At induction and annually |
| Spokesperson and deputy | Media statements, difficult calls with families, avoiding speculation | Annually |
| Volunteers and school groups | How to raise an alarm, what to do in an evacuation, who to ask | At briefing before activities |
Training also supports the exercises in Chapter 7. Short drills, such as a ten-minute walk-through of an action card at a shift handover, build familiarity at little cost.
The sixth step schedules reviews so that the plan keeps pace with changes in the organisation, the threat landscape and regulations. The source page names all three. A plan that is correct on the day it is issued begins to age at once: people leave, systems change, contacts change, and the rules that govern the home move.
Example for JHA: The plan might have an owner, for example, the Superintendent, a version log and a review calendar. It might be reviewed at least once a year; after any activation at Level 2 or 3; after each exercise; after a change in key staff; and after a change in the regulatory requirements. Contact lists might be checked more often, perhaps every quarter, because they go out of date fastest. The Program Management phase in Chapter 8 expands on this cycle.
A home that runs around the clock has to write its plan for the weakest hour, not the strongest. At night and at weekends, fewer staff are present, senior people are off-site, and help takes longer to arrive. The plan should therefore state, in plain terms, what the person in charge on the shift may do alone and when to call for help. For example, that person might be authorised to start an evacuation, call emergency services, move residents to a safer area, stop a medication round if an error is suspected and request extra staff, all before the Superintendent arrives. Any action beyond these limits is escalated by phone.
The plan should also say how the person in charge reaches the Superintendent and the managing agent at any hour, with a second route if the first fails. A call tree, kept short and tested, works better than a long list: each person calls two others, and the last person confirms back. Test the tree at least once during an out-of-hours period, because a call tree that works at midday may fail at midnight. Findings from these tests, such as changed numbers or people who cannot be reached, should go straight into the contact list.
Finally, the plan should be realistic about the first hour. In most events, the first hour is handled by whoever is present. The action cards, printed copies, and delegated authority exist to make that hour safer. The crisis management team then takes over the strategic decisions as it assembles.
The crisis management plan and the business continuity plans solve different problems. The crisis plan helps senior people decide, lead and communicate. The continuity plans, written and owned by the BCM team, describe how to restore each critical function. The plan should make the hand-over between them explicit. For example, when the crisis team judges that the home must run medication rounds from paper charts, it activates the continuity plan for CBF-03, and the BCM team and nursing lead run it. When the function is restored, the crisis team hears about it through the status board. Without this link, the two plans can duplicate or contradict each other.
MSF states that the Social Residential Homes Act came into operation on 1 July 2026 and that the Code of Practice 2026 has five domains, including management of the home, physical management of premises and facilities, and incident management. The plan is likely to touch all three. The project team should map the plan against the Code once it has the text, noting where the Code requires specific policies, records or reporting, and add them to PL-3 and PL-7 [verify].
The PD phase produces the plan itself and the conditions for its use. For JHA, the illustrative result is a seven-part plan built around action cards and short protocols, stored in forms that survive a power or systems failure, shared under version control, taught to each audience and reviewed on a fixed cycle. A plan, however good, is only a hypothesis until it is tested. Chapter 7 explains how to test and exercise the plan, from tabletop discussions to full-scale exercises.
Continue reading: Chapter 7, Implementing Testing and Exercising Phase as part of the Crisis Management Planning Methodology for Jamiyah Home for the Aged, shows how to build scenarios and run tabletop and full-scale exercises to find and fix gaps.