A tailored critical incident exercise tested how a not-for-profit children’s services organisation’s senior leadership team would manage a highly sensitive critical incident, with a post-activity report on strengths, gaps and improvements.
THE CHALLENGE
A long-standing not-for-profit organisation provides inclusive care and support for children and families across a network of sites. Its senior leadership team needed to be ready to manage a highly sensitive and complex critical incident involving a child in the organisation’s care, and to do so in a coordinated, compassionate and compliant way. Plans alone could not show whether leaders would make sound decisions, communicate clearly and follow procedure under pressure. The organisation wanted its business continuity arrangements tested against a realistic scenario, with an independent view of capability strengths, potential gaps and areas for improvement. It also wanted the option of a deeper look at how well its continuity planning framework aligned with international standards.
OUR APPROACH
Agilient designed and delivered a tailored, scenario-based business continuity exercise for the organisation’s senior leadership team. The exercise applied Agilient’s structured exercise methodology, drawing on principles from AS ISO 31000:2018, AS 3745 and other resilience and emergency management standards. The scenario was tailored to the organisation’s context and to the sensitivity of the situation it portrayed. During the facilitated session, Agilient tested leadership coordination, decision-making, communication protocols and procedural readiness under pressure. Observations from the session were consolidated into a post-activity report highlighting capability strengths, potential gaps and areas for improvement. Agilient also offered an optional detailed document review to assess the maturity of the organisation’s business continuity framework and its alignment with ISO 22301:2019 and current good practice, giving the organisation a path to further depth if it chose to take it up.
THE OUTCOME
The leadership team gained practical experience of managing a highly sensitive incident and a clear view of where its arrangements could be strengthened.
- A tailored scenario-based exercise facilitated with the senior leadership team
- A post-activity report highlighting capability strengths, potential gaps and areas for improvement
- An optional document review pathway to assess continuity plan maturity against ISO 22301:2019
Related services: business continuity consulting, crisis management consultants. Sector experience: school and early learning security. To discuss a similar project, contact Agilient.