A new business resilience and continuity trial scheme will back businesses to remain up-and-running when major threats and emergencies occur.
OxLEP Business has today (8 July) announced it will be taking part in a year-long business resilience pilot project, aimed at better supporting Oxfordshire-based organisations to prepare and protect themselves against major challenges, generated out of their control.
The ‘CODE RED – Oxfordshire Business Resilience Scheme’, sees OxLEP Business join forces with the Berkshire Growth Hub and Buckinghamshire Business First in working alongside the Thames Valley Resilience Forum and local resilience teams to deliver the new trial service.
Through the pilot scheme – running to April 2025 – the new service aims to support businesses’ ability to remain resilient and continue to operate when negatively impacted by incidents outside of their usual control.
These incidents could include issues such as power outages, cyber-attacks or even flooding.
The pilot is being funded by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) as part of their Local Resilience Forums (LRF) Innovation Fund for 2023/24.
The scheme is open to all Oxfordshire businesses. It will provide information and advice via occasional text messages with the aim of supporting businesses through key and practical advice, addressing such emergency situations.
The guidance aims to back businesses to plan, prepare, be ready and adapt, so that any risk and impact is minimised.
The service will highlight a range of useful resources and practical steps businesses can take in supporting their respective continuity plans – this includes referrals to relevant business support webinars, advice and additional services.
Messages will be complementary and additional to existing schemes such as the National Severe Weather Warning Service, Met Office Hazard Manager and Environment Agency flood alerts.
Helen Brind – Growth Hub Manager of OxLEP – said: “This collaborative programme aims to give businesses the reassurance that they are searching for at times when situations are very much out of their control and extremely difficult to manage, perhaps due to its immediacy or unfortunate ability to create significant disruption and damage to a business.
“Via teaming-up with other Growth Hubs and the Thames Valley Resilience Forum, we believe this pilot programme will help to reduce the risk and uncertainty attached to these types of scenarios, improve the collective resilience of businesses and – perhaps in-turn – support our communities to be better prepared for these unplanned eventualities.
“We are delighted to be a partner of this pilot scheme and hope many businesses in Oxfordshire – and indeed, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and the wider Thames Valley – will sign-up and benefit hugely from it.”
Due to the programme being at a pilot stage, OxLEP Business and its programme partners are also dedicated to listening to suggestions as to what might also be built into any future service.
It is therefore encouraging interested businesses to provide thoughts and feedback on what could be created into a more permanent potential programme.
Any future programme provision will be subject to future funding opportunities.
Get further information on the programme and to sign-up to the service
