What is this PAS about?
It recommends techniques for improving and maintaining resilience in NHS-funded organizations, building on activities already in progress within the organization.
Who is this PAS for?
It’s intended for those with responsibility for developing, delivering and managing resilience and continuity strategies as part of the governance of healthcare organizations, including:
- Chairs and non-executive directors
- Chief executives
- Medical directors
- Directors of nursing, lead nurses or matrons
- Directors in charge of information and communication technology (ICT)
- Estates and facilities directors
- Directors in charge of finance, governance, performance and related activities
- Operational directors
- Directors of commissioning
- Resilience leads, e.g. emergency planning and business continuity leads
It will also be of interest to:
- Emergency planning managers/officers
- Risk and governance managers
- Managers of individual services
- Independent contractors, including general practitioners and general dental practitioners
- Practitioners of emergency planning, business continuity and resilience
- Chief executives, emergency planning and business continuity leads from independent health and social care providers, including the third sector and social enterprises
- Providers of services and supplies to the health sector
Why should you use this PAS?
All NHS-funded organizations are required to plan and implement emergency plans, including business continuity plans, as though they were Category 1 or 2 responders under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.
This includes ensuring that arrangements made within the boundaries of NHS funded organizations and with partners are adequate, appropriate to local circumstances, and built on the principles of risk assessment, cooperation with partners, emergency planning, communication with the public, and sharing information.
PAS 2015 brings together the different strands of resilience planning within the NHS to create a framework that supports organizations’ efforts to become more resilient. It does this through:
- Helping to drive compliance with the relevant legislation, particularly the Civil Contingencies Act 2004
- Adopting a unified and cohesive approach to resilience and business continuity which builds on BS 25999, the British Standard for business continuity
- Developing resilient relationships with commissioners and providers of health services, which can be benchmarked against other similar sized organizations
- Outlining the criticality of patient pathways and critical interdependencies by providing robust health services in all circumstances
- Developing a sound understanding of partnership working within the resilience agenda
- Helping to protect the reputation of the NHS and related services, and to maintain public confidence