Completing the Data Security and Protection Toolkit for the first time
Date: Tuesday 7 May 2024
Location: Online / Zoom webinar
New name for Digital Social Care... Find out more 
Business continuity plans in social care are important. A good plan will improve the way a business responds to a disruption that could have a major impact on its ability to provide care.
There are many circumstances which could disrupt how care is provided. Natural disasters like floods, pandemics such as outbreaks of infectious diseases, and cyber attacks compromising sensitive information are just some of the examples that need to be considered as part of a plan.
At Digital Care Hub, we help care providers protect their information. Statistics from the National Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2023 tell us that only 52% of UK organisations have a formal cyber security incident response plan in place.
Adding cyber security to a business continuity plan will help care providers to minimise the impact should an incident occur. At Digital Care Hub, we have a template plan that care providers can use which considers data protection and cyber security.
Testing a business continuity plan is as important as having one. Mimicking the actions of a scenario is the best way to check if a plan works in practice. For example, switching off Wi-Fi connection and referring to the business continuity plan to see if the steps put in place work in practice is a good way to test what to do in the event of a broadband outage.
Tests should also be recorded so they can be referred back to and amended if necessary.
Local Authorities and care providers can now access a business continuity plan audit tool that aims to consider how thoroughly cyber security and data protection issues are addressed as part of a business continuity plan.
This will help both care providers and local authorities to understand how assured they should feel about the level of planning in place to minimise the impact of a data breach or cyber attack.
The tool was developed by Buckinghamshire Council who identified a need to check the effectiveness of business continuity plans in efforts to support care providers with minimising the impact of a data breach or cyber attack. Care providers are also expected to use the Data Security & Protection Toolkit at least once a year to check and improve their data security arrangements.
Care providers should use the tool to check how thorough their business continuity plans are, and whether they should make any amendments.
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash
Back to News