[BCM] [SHINE] [E1] [C11] Summary of Understanding Your Organisation

Summary of the eBook: "Continuity of Care: Ensuring SHINE’s Mission Through Effective BCM"

The first section of this eBook provides a comprehensive overview of SHINE Children and Youth Services (SHINE) and its commitment to ensuring the continuity of care for the vulnerable children, youth, and families it serves.

By aligning the Business Continuity Management (BCM) methodology with SHINE's mission, this section lays the groundwork for the subsequent implementation of effective BCM strategies.

The introduction establishes the importance of BCM in safeguarding SHINE’s operations, ensuring that the critical functions required for its mission continue even in times of crisis.

By implementing BCM, SHINE can be resilient to various disruptions while maintaining service delivery and upholding its community responsibility.

SHINE's work is vital in providing services that help vulnerable youth and families in Singapore.

The organisation’s core services—ranging from educational psychology, social work, case management, therapy, and targeted interventions—are vital to the community's social welfare.

This section reviews SHINE's operational structure, services, and key stakeholders to highlight their significance in sustaining its mission of care and support.

The chapter identifies SHINE’s BCM goals, emphasising the alignment of BCM with SHINE’s strategic objectives.

These include maintaining the availability of essential services, protecting SHINE’s reputation, and minimising disruptions to critical services that directly impact the community.

The goal is to ensure the organisation can continue to meet its commitments to children, youth, and families who rely on its services.

SHINE’s business continuity objectives are developed to support the overarching goal of service preservation during any disruption.

These objectives are crafted to ensure the ability to recover quickly from disruptions, minimize service downtime, and maintain essential functions such as educational support, therapy services, and case management for clients in need.

This chapter outlines the assumptions made in the development of SHINE’s BCM plan.

These assumptions include the availability of resources, the stability of key personnel, and potential disruptions (e.g., natural disasters, pandemics).

These assumptions are essential for shaping the continuity strategy and ensuring that the planning process accounts for all possible scenarios.

A dedicated BCM team at SHINE ensures that business continuity efforts are led and coordinated effectively.

This section covers the roles and responsibilities of the BCM team, emphasising the need for cross-functional representation from departments such as human resources, operations, IT, and communications.

The team’s mandate is to drive the BCM strategy, monitor its effectiveness, and update the plan in response to changes in the operating environment or business needs.

Understanding the external and internal factors that impact SHINE’s operations is critical.

This section looks at SHINE's operational environment, including potential risks from the socio-political climate, regulatory changes, and shifts in funding or community needs.

The analysis also focuses on identifying vulnerabilities in SHINE’s operational processes and external dependencies, which could affect the delivery of its critical services.

In this section, SHINE adopts a structured approach to BCM through the seven-phase BCM planning methodology.

These phases, including Project Management, Risk Analysis, Business Impact Analysis (BIA), Business Continuity Strategy, Plan Development, Testing and Exercising, and Program Management, ensure a systematic and cohesive BCM approach that aligns with SHINE’s operational and strategic priorities.

This chapter identifies the various risks and threats that could impact SHINE’s operations, including natural disasters, cyber-attacks, staff shortages, financial crises, and health emergencies.

A robust risk assessment allows SHINE to prioritise its response strategies and prepare for the most severe but plausible scenarios.

This chapter also addresses how to mitigate the identified risks through proactive planning and resilient infrastructure.

Identifying SHINE’s Critical Business Functions (CBFs) is essential for ensuring that key services are prioritised in times of crisis.

CBFs include educational services, counselling, therapy, case management, and social work.

The chapter discusses how each CBF supports SHINE's mission and how it is linked to operational resilience, ensuring that the most crucial services are maintained during disruptions.