Spotlight on SIRA

Our world is becoming increasingly unpredictable. From climate‑related weather events to the growing threat of cyber‑attacks, employers must prepare not for just if a crisis will occur, but when. While many organisations already have resilience plans in place, a crucial question remains: how can you be confident those plans will hold up when the pressure is on?

The Scenario Informed Resilience Assessment (SIRA) is a newly developed tool from The Workforce Development Trust, designed to help organisations rigorously stress test their resilience strategies. Built in collaboration with leading resilience subject matter experts – and informed by our recent review of the National Occupational Standards for Resilience and Emergencies – SIRA provides a structured, evidence‑based approach to evaluating preparedness.

We spoke with Jo Parker, Head of Product Strategy and Laura Schell, Director of Client Solutions, who led the development and piloting of SIRA, to explore how it helps employers strengthen their ability to prepare for, withstand and recover from adverse events.

Laura and Jo, you have both been involved with the SIRA product from the very beginning. Can you tell us how the idea first came about?

Laura: The idea for SIRA came directly from our work with public sector organisations. Many of the organisations we support aren’t just managing their own risks, they are the ones expected to form the response when adverse events occur.

At the same time, we’ve seen a clear increase in the frequency, scale and complexity of these events. They’re happening closer together, often overlapping, and placing sustained pressure on people, systems and partnerships.

Jo: We also identified a gap in the market. While many organisations use frameworks, checklists and maturity models for business continuity planning, far fewer tools allow them to properly stress test preparedness in a structured, scenario-led way. We wanted something that reflects how incidents really unfold – fast-moving, uncertain and involving multiple teams. That’s what led to SIRA: a tool that shows what holds up under pressure, and what doesn’t.

How did you collaborate with resilience subject matter experts during development?

Jo: Collaboration with resilience subject matter experts was central to the development of SIRA. We were supported by Paul Netherton, former National Police Lead for resilience, emergency planning and risk management, whose experience spans both the tactical and strategic implications of nationwide disruption. His insight played a key role in shaping the solution and ensuring it reflects real-world operational pressures.

Laura: We’re also supported by the Resilience Advisory Network as our delivery partners. They bring deep resilience expertise into delivery, while we bring a workforce lens – focusing on capability, roles and behaviours, not just plans and processes. Together, that combination ensures SIRA is both operationally credible and people-centred for the organisations we work with.

Can you walk us through how SIRA assesses an organisation’s resilience in practice?

Jo: One of the things that really differentiates SIRA is the use of rich, immersive media to bring scenarios to life. Rather than relying on written prompts alone, organisations are taken through realistic, evolving scenarios that reflect the pace, rising tide and pressure of potential disruptions. This helps participants engage more fully and respond as they would in practice. The solution is built around three core elements.

• First is the readiness assessment, which evaluates organisational and workforce preparedness across key areas. This provides a clear baseline, identifying strengths as well as gaps in capability, roles and processes.
• Second is the scenario workshop. These are immersive exercises where teams work through adverse events together, testing decision-making, communication, escalation and continuity under pressure. This is where assumptions are challenged and real behaviours come to the surface.
• Finally, SIRA delivers insights and recommendations. Organisations receive a clear readiness score alongside practical, prioritised actions that support workforce and operational planning, helping them strengthen resilience over time.

Together, these elements give organisations a realistic, evidence-based picture of how prepared they really are, and what they need to do next to improve.

What role will tools like SIRA play in helping organisations keep pace with emerging risks?

Jo: At an organisational level, tools like SIRA help teams regularly assess and strengthen their own resilience, testing how they would respond to new and evolving risks, identifying workforce and capability gaps, and building confidence that plans will hold up under pressure.

But SIRA is also proving valuable at a system level. We’re using it with Local Resilience Forums to support a shared understanding of multi-agency response, helping partners explore how decisions, communication and coordination play out across organisational boundaries during disruption.

Laura: That combination is key. It allows individual organisations to strengthen their own readiness, while also supporting more joined-up, consistent and effective responses across places and partnerships, which is increasingly critical as risks continue to evolve.

What is your advice for organisations who are not confident about their resilience plans or who have yet to create one?

Jo: Rather than trying to plan for everything at once, we encourage organisations to focus on what really matters in the first hour, the first day and the first week of a disruptive event. That approach helps teams prioritise critical decisions, communications and actions when the impact is greatest. To support this, we’ve developed a downloadable checklist that guides organisations through those early stages in a practical, structured way, helping them identify immediate priorities and dependencies.

Laura: Organisations across the public and private sectors are facing increasing uncertainty, and the consequences of getting resilience wrong can be significant. Confidence comes from testing. Scenario-led discussions and exercises help organisations move from assumptions to evidence, revealing gaps in decision-making, communication and capability before a real incident occurs.

Are there plans for future enhancements or additional features?

Laura: Yes, absolutely. SIRA is designed to evolve. As we continue to test it against different types of events, with more organisations across both the public and private sectors, and in both single-organisation and multi-agency contexts, the tool will continue to be developed and strengthened. We’re also placing a growing emphasis on the workforce impact of disruption. Understanding not just what needs to happen, but who needs to do it, with what skills and capacity, is central to effective resilience.

Jo: That’s where our upcoming Beyond Six Steps – Workforce Planning for Resilience programme comes in. It will stress test workforce plans against disruption, helping organisations understand whether they have the right capacity, skills and roles in place to respond and recover.

Speak to us to find out how SIRA can support your resilience journey.