Care Home Business Continuity Plan

Why this matters for your registration

•People living in a care home depend on the provider for essential care every day, even during emergencies or major disruptions.
•CQC wants to see practical arrangements for maintaining safety, medicines support, staffing, food, hydration and communication during and after an incident.
•A strong continuity plan helps demonstrate that you have thought through evacuation, recovery, IT failure, outbreaks, staffing shortages and other service-critical risks.

•A clear purpose and scope covering residents, staff, families, management and other relevant organisations.
•A business continuity risk assessment relevant to your actual care home, such as severe weather, utility failure, outbreaks, staffing shortages, cyber incidents or evacuation scenarios.
•A list of essential services that must continue, such as medicines, personal care, safeguarding, hydration, food and urgent health support.
•Clearly allocated emergency roles, decision-making responsibilities, escalation routes and emergency contact information.
•Arrangements for emergency staffing, evacuation, relocation, communication, data access, IT recovery and return to normal operations.
•How the plan will be tested, reviewed and improved after exercises, incidents or changes to the service.

•Make sure the plan is specific to your care home, residents, suppliers, premises and staffing model.
•Check that evacuation, relocation and recovery arrangements are realistic and consistent with your other premises documents.
•Show who can activate the plan, who leads the response and how essential services will continue.
•Do not rely on a generic emergency template that does not reflect your actual service.

Need help?

We can help you structure a Business Continuity Plan so it reflects your care home, emergency arrangements and essential service priorities clearly.