Crisis management for town and parish councils - what to do if things go wrong
03/12/2025
Town and parish councils have a wide range of responsibilities, and on the rare occasions when things go wrong, the impact on staff/members and the local community can be significant.
This article aims to provide some general guidance on how to prepare for a wide range of possible risk factors – including identifying and mitigating risks, planning for disruption, and learning lessons from what happened.
Identifying and mitigating risks
While we can never predict when or how things will go wrong, a robust process of risk assessment will go some way to minimising risks and their potential impacts. Specifically, a risk assessment should identify:
- Who or what is at risk (and how)
- Who is responsible for implementing and monitoring required risk controls
- What resources are needed to satisfactorily manage and mitigate the risks you have identified
The process of drawing up a risk assessment will also help you to identify any areas where you may need external help – for example, speaking to your local fire and rescue service or Safety Advisory Group about event risk management (see also our article on event safety planning), or speaking to your insurer about property or business interruption risk.
Risk assessments don’t have to be long or complex documents. Read our 5-step guide to creating a simple risk assessment.
Business continuity – planning for disruption
Your risk assessment will have identified some of the key risks you could face, and some of these risks may impact your ability to operate normally. For example, damage to buildings or equipment could leave you unable to deliver services as normal, or use council premises for a period of time.
A business continuity plan is a separate document that provides detail about how you would manage a variety of different scenarios, from premises incidents (e.g. flood, fire, escape of water) to personnel incidents (e.g. death or injury of council staff/members).
Your business continuity plan will be tailored to the needs of your organisation, but it should include:
- A clear explanation of the scope of the document and the circumstances in which it should be enacted
- A timeline of recovery actions (e.g. first 24 hours, through to 3-6 months, depending on the scenario)
- Details of roles, responsibilities and resources (e.g. availability of alternative premises and key contacts)
- The date the plan will next be reviewed
See the UK Government’s Business Continuity Management Toolkit for more guidance.
Business interruption insurance
Even with careful continuity planning, it may not be possible to fully mitigate the impact of a significant disruption. For example, the temporary loss of a building due to fire or flood could affect your ability to earn revenue, e.g. through hiring out meeting room or changing room facilities.
You may want to speak to Zurich about business interruption insurance. This could provide financial compensation for lost revenue or rent following an insured material damage event (see Insurance for charities: Essential coverage and best practices).
Planning your communications
If something does go wrong, it’s also important to think about how you’ll communicate with those affected, including staff, volunteers, the local community, and potentially the media.
A stakeholder communications plan is a simple document that identifies the different groups of people (stakeholders) you might need to communicate with in a range of different scenarios. It also explains the key message(s) you'll need to deliver to those stakeholders, as well as the channels you will use to communicate, how often you’ll need to do so, and who will be responsible for each stakeholder group.
This article contains a useful stakeholder communications plan template you can adapt for your needs. You may find it helpful to include a stakeholder communications plan as an appendix to your business continuity plan.
Depending on the seriousness of the incident, publishing a short ‘holding’ statement on your website may reassure the public and media that you are handling it appropriately. It could also help to reduce the volume of enquiries you are faced with, allowing your staff/members to concentrate on dealing with the incident itself.
This article offers some simple tips on what to include in a website holding statement.
Post-incident: managing the immediate aftermath
If the incident has led to a loss covered by your insurance, then once it is safely under control, try to gather as much information as you can about what happened, for example by taking photographs of any damage, and taking statements and contact details from any witnesses. Contact your insurer as soon as possible and follow their instructions. This will help minimise any delays in handling your claim.
If the incident has been reported to the police, make sure you obtain a crime reference number. Also, make a note of any other emergency services contacted (including dates/times).
You may find it helpful to plan ahead and learn more about the insurance claims process. Our claims guidance page contains some useful information about what to expect when making different types of insurance claim, including the information you may be asked to provide.
Post-incident: debrief, review and update
Once the incident is under control, it’s important to conduct a debrief and learn lessons from what happened. Speak to those affected, and find out what worked well and what didn’t. Were there any risks you hadn’t accounted for? Were there any gaps or weaknesses in your response?
The post-incident review process could include:
- Updating risk assessments, event safety and emergency plans
- Reviewing and updating business continuity and communications plans as appropriate
- Identifying and implementing required risk control/risk mitigation measures to minimise the risk of future incidents
- Providing support to those affected by the incident, as appropriate
Useful articles
For further help and support, see also:
