As we enter 2026 with refreshed energy levels and a huge amount of excitement about future projects, it is worth reflecting on some of the successes of the Resilience Team during the last few months of 2025.
Through November alone we were out across the UK delivering a remarkable TEN exercises, each designed to strengthen readiness, confidence, and real-world response capability. From testing business continuity frameworks, to rehearsing operational procedures and emergency response plans, we have worked side-by-side with organisations to test what matters most: the ability to respond when disruption strikes.
Resilience is more than a plan on a shelf. It is people collaborating, communicating, and making decisions under time pressure. November demonstrated this in action.
What made the November stand out?
Our approach has focused on practical, immersive and scenario-driven sessions, encouraging teams to think critically, challenge current assumptions, rehearse roles in realistic situationsand act under time-bound injects.
✔ A major live exercise for 600 participants
✔ Live tabletop discussions
✔ Operational walk-throughs
✔ Structured, scenario-based simulations
✔ Inject-driven escalation and decision making under uncertainty
✔ Real-time observations and supportive feedback
Every exercise gave participants the space to explore “What if?”, identify both strengths and uncover areas for development, and walk away with tangible learning.
Highlights included:
Major live tier 2 exercise
Throughout November, our team delivered a programme of tier 2 national exercises, delivered across five days and comprising both live and tabletop formats, for a government client. The programme was designed to test response arrangements at scale, exercising coordination, communication, and decision-making across multiple organisations and operational levels.
The live exercise spanned two days and involved more than 600 participants from across the United Kingdom, creating a dynamic environment where teams were required to respond to evolving injects issued by the exercise control team. Participants rehearsed contingency plans, escalation routes, information flows, and strategic decision-making, enabling them to experience the pressures and pace of a real-time response.
Complementary tabletop sessions provided space for structured reflection, scenario discussion and the testing of assumptions in a lower-pressure environment, encouraging cross-team collaboration and shared understanding of roles and responsibilities.
Across the programme, lessons and observations were captured to support continuous improvement, identifying strengths, good practice, and opportunities for refinement. These insights will inform future planning and help further strengthen national resilience and readiness for disruptive events.
Enfield Borough Council
On 4 November, our team delivered a Corporate Exercise for London Borough of Enfield. The tabletop exercise brought together participants from Council Gold, Council Silver, Housing, Communications, and Humanitarian Assistance, with observers from the London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police, creating a great opportunity for collaboration!
The scenario detailed an explosion in a high-rise building during severe winter weather, resulting in mass evacuation, the activation of a Rest Centre, and the establishment of a Humanitarian Assistance Centre. The exercise scenario was designed with a particular emphasis on information sharing, and identifying roles and responsibilities across the council, providing valuable learning in cross-departmental response.
Tourism Ireland
On 19 November, we delivered a discussion-based exercise for Tourism Ireland involving participants from their Business Continuity Steering Committee.
The scenario explored the loss of market offices and examined the resulting impacts on critical business operations, including the required actions to recover and restore essential services.
Colleagues from the affected market offices were consulted during development of the scenario, ensuring that localised impacts, response arrangements, and proposed improvements were accurately considered. The findings provided valuable insight and validated a key planning assumption that supports the organisation’s current business continuity approach at Tourism Ireland.
Motor Insurers’ Bureau
On 20th of November, we delivered two exercises for the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB), a valued and longstanding client. ‘Exercise Oracle’ and ‘Exercise Algorithm’ were developed to test and enhance MIB’s preparedness for business continuity related incidents.
Across the two sessions, teams worked through a simulated exercise, providing a realistic and pressurised environment to rehearse response arrangements. MIB’s playbooks, frameworks, roles, and responsibilities were actively tested, with participation from senior leadership, operational staff, through to subject matter experts, ensuring a comprehensive organisational perspective.
Both exercises generated valuable insights that will help further strengthen MIB’s resilience and readiness for future incidents.
Hackney Bough Council
On 18 and 19 November, we conducted three control post exercises for the London Borough of Hackney. The purpose of these exercises was to rehearse the Borough Emergency Control Centre (BECC) incident roles and responsibilities in two distinct scenarios: a rioting situation and a flooding situation.
These exercises allowed participants to demonstrate their understanding of their BECC incident role and responsibilities as outlined in their role profiles and role specific training. Additionally, they tested participants’ skills and capabilities necessary for their roles, such as communication, information management, situational awareness, and logging.
Why Exercise?
A crisis is not the moment to test plans for the first time. Exercising builds organisational confidence and resilience in advance, ensuring a smoother and quicker recovery when disruption occurs.
Exercises enable organisations to:
- Validate and strengthen plans and procedures
- Practise communication pathways and leadership escalation
- Improve decision making during uncertainty
- Identify gaps without real-world consequences
- Build strong, confident and capable teams
Preparedness is achieved by practising together.
Could Your Organisation Respond Today?
Consider the following questions:
🔸 If your primary site became unavailable today, would you be able to continue operations?
🔸 Do all teams understand decision ownership and escalation routes?
🔸 When was the last time your plans were tested against a live scenario?
🔸 Could your communication reach the right people quickly enough?
If you hesitated when answering any of the above, then now may be the right time to exercise.
Strengthen Your Resilience with Us
Our team can design and deliver a tailored exercise to meet organisational needs, whether it is a discussion-based workshop or a full scenario simulation. We support organisations and businesses at every stage, from planning and delivery through to observations and recommendations.
If you would like to test your plans, procedures or crisis response capability, please contact us to discuss how we can support you. Use the Get in Touch option on the website, or email enquiries@rabconsultants.co.uk or call our head office in Lichfield on 0330 223 6475. Let’s build resilience together.