The service has been set up in response to growing demand from clients and the rise in the number of social media crises and wider reputational and political risks businesses, organisations and public figures are facing.

The 10-strong Crisis & Issues Management Board will be led by Mary Whenman, managing director, Corporate & Financial who is supported by a team of board-level colleagues from across Grayling’s specialist PR & PA units and offices across the UK, including Victor Benady, managing director, Digital.

“When your business or brand has a problem, you want to know you have the best people, with live crisis experience and up-to-date contacts working on your behalf,” explained Mary.

“From emerging issues to helping in an emergency, we have a team of experts with decades of experience in reputation management, politics and public policy, journalism and digital available 24/7, 365 days a year,” she added.

Recent crises which the team has handled include three High Court cases, an outbreak of Hepatitis A, a potential outbreak of H1N1 in the food chain, redundancy and restructuring programmes, domestic appliance fires and consumer affairs investigations. The team is also working on a number of crisis preparedness programmes which include running crisis simulation exercises for Euro 2012 and London 2012.

The launch of the Crisis & Issues Management Board is accompanied by a new crisis and issues management service, Prepare, Respond and Recover, which Grayling has just rolled out globally to its 70 offices.

Grayling has recently won awards for its crisis management. Most recently it won a Silver Award for Crisis Communications at the CIPR Pride Awards Scotland 2011 for its work handling a potential outbreak of H1N1 in the food chain. It was also winner of the PR Week Issues & Crisis Management Award in 2009.