Where multiple institutions occupy a building (whether these are University departments and/or external departments), a major incident that affects the whole building, such as flood or fire, requires a coordinated response by occupants.
In some cases, for example where institutions are closely affiliated (e.g. a group of small departments within the same School or Faculty), a single Incident Management and Business Continuity Plan (IMBCP) and single Gold and Silver teams may be appropriate and the best way to ensure a joined up response. However, in general, each individual institution within a building will have its own plan and its own Gold and Silver Teams in order to manage incidents that impact that institution only (e.g. a localised power outage).
Each institution should be aware of each other’s IMBCP and ensure the IMBCPs are streamlined - plans that contradict each other may cause confusion and delay action. For instance, each individual plan should include contact details of the other institutions’ Chairs of Gold and Silver and other contacts who would be involved in co-ordinating a response, e.g. safety officers. Roles and responsibilities should be clear, including who takes charge in an incident that affects the whole building (the institution that occupies the majority of space will usually lead the response). Examples of good practice to ensure a coordinated emergency response across multiple occupants include: emergency response as a standing item at building safety meetings to ensure that information is shared and up to date, coordinated fire training and familiarity with evacuation plans.
For incidents that mainly affect one occupant in the building but with some impact on others, it may be helpful to co-opt onto the Silver Team a representative of others’ Silver teams to help manage the incident effectively. Examples of such incidents could be a chemical spill or gas leak, or unwelcome visitors.
The business continuity element of the plan are necessarily separate plans for each institution because they are designed around the specific activities of an institution and how to recover those after an incident and keep things running smoothly. However, there may be opportunities for reciprocal contingency measures between occupants such as sharing of space or facilities.