Bad weather: public sector leaders ill-equipped for potential crises

Severe weather is the biggest potential risk to public services, but cash-strapped publicleaders are not preparing for a potential increase in major incidents that could hit hospitals, local authorities and charities. A report from risk expert Zurich says the UK's public services face a set of new potential threats, including floods, financial crises, data losses and suppliers going bust, but funding cuts have compromised many public bodies' ability to survive major incidents. Nearly three quarters of financial directors in the survey say funding cuts pose the biggest threat to their crisis management over the next five years. New modes of digital service delivery mean data security lapses and supplier insolvencies are more likely to happen and have a greater long-term impact on communities, services and systems in the next half-decade, says the Risk and Response report, . Despite this, Zurich warns that many public sector organisations are only focusing on the more "known" risks like flooding. Just 15% of public sector leaders surveyed said IT security and failure was a high priority major incident risk for their organisation. Further central funding cuts during the current austerity climate are depleting reserves and threatening initial response and contingency plans for major incidents, said 71% of financial directors. If the worst comes to the worst, frontline services might be cut, or closed altogether. Anne Torry, managing director at Zurich Municipal, said that there is "little spare cash to draw on if disaster strikes", but added awareness of the changing types and impacts of major incidents must be heightened. "Issues like data loss, cybercrime and supply chain failure can have a serious impact on the community," she said. "For example, with so many critical community and social care services now relying on highly sensitive personal data, a data integrity failure can quickly present real security concerns." The biggest threats to the public sector, according to Zurich, are: 1. Severe weather event 2. Financial crisis 3. Supply chain failure 4. Global systemic event 5. Data loss 6. Major accident 7. Reputational PR disaster 8. Governance failure 9. Malicious attack 10. Industrial action This article is published by Guardian Professional . Join the Guardian Public Leaders Network free to receive regular emails on the issues at the top of the professional agenda.