Staffing Shortages Happen — But Your Continuity Plan Shouldn’t Be a Blank Page
🧠 Business Continuity Blog — Staffing Continuity Series
🧩 Even the most stable teams face disruption. Sickness. School closures. Burnout. Transport issues. No matter how good your rota system is, life happens — and your care service needs a plan.
This isn’t just about scrambling to cover a shift. It’s about ensuring safe staffing levels, minimising impact on care, and avoiding CQC concerns about unsafe practice.
📋 1. Identify Your Staffing Risks
- Which roles are critical to safe care delivery?
- What’s your minimum safe staffing ratio by shift type?
- Do you know your single points of failure — like lone night staff?
🔁 2. Build a Redeployment Plan
You don’t always need agency staff. Could you:
- Use non-care staff who are trained to step in?
- Redeploy from low-risk services to high-need settings?
- Offer flexible working to bank or part-time staff?
Planning redeployment in advance avoids chaos when the call-ins start coming.
📞 3. Have Agency Protocols in Place
Agency should be a last resort — but it needs to be ready when you need it.
- Do you have up-to-date agency contracts?
- Are profiles and DBS checks on file in advance?
- Do staff know the approval process to escalate quickly?
✅ 4. Document Your Plan — and Test It
- Write down your staffing continuity actions and escalation process
- Include staffing risk in your Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
- Test it — in a tabletop exercise or scenario-based discussion
💡 Pro Tip: Don’t Wait for a Crisis
Services that review staffing continuity monthly — not just in emergencies — can spot patterns, improve recruitment, and strengthen resilience across the board.
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Updated for Procurement Act 2023 • CQC-aligned • BASE-aligned (where relevant)