• Academy to train more than 4,000 public and private sector workers in crisis skills and expertise every year, strengthening resilience in communities across the UK.
• Biggest upgrade to resilience workers’ occupational standards in a generation to help keep the public safe as part of the Plan for Change.
• Pat McFadden unveils Risk Vulnerability Tool to help Ministers and civil servants support vulnerable groups during a crisis and learn lessons from the Covid pandemic.

Communities up and down the country are set to be better protected in the face of national crises from today as the government opens the UK Resilience Academy – helping to secure Britain’s future as it delivers on the Plan for Change.

The cutting-edge centre will transform crisis training for thousands of public and private sector workers, with at least 4,000 people set to be trained at the Academy’s North Yorkshire campus every year, on courses covering everything from business continuity planning, to crowd management and crisis communications.

The UK Resilience Academy, which will train citizens, businesses, the emergency services, the Armed Forces and the Civil Service, will sit at the heart of a newly formed network of public and private sector organisations – including the College for National Security and the Defence Academy – who have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to improve the quality and accessibility of resilience training. 

Today’s announcement comes as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster unveils new software that will allow decision makers to identify groups that are vulnerable to particular risks, by mapping real-time crisis data alongside demographic statistics.

The Risk Vulnerability tool is now available to 10,000 ministers and civil servants across Whitehall and the Devolved Nations. It has been developed by the National Situation Centre and the Office for National Statistics, and will feed directly into government decision making during future crises. 

Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: 

Our first duty is to keep people safe – and through our Plan for Change, we are creating strong and resilient communities across the country. 

Today, we’re making a generational upgrade to crisis training for thousands of workers, and helping decision makers identify vulnerable groups in a crisis. This is all part of our plan to secure Britain’s future.

In extreme cold weather, the software would show demographic data, such as households that rely either on gas or electricity, or areas with elderly people who would need support with food supplies, alongside near real-time data such as live weather warnings and power outages, helping decision-makers target support to those most in need. When planning for potential flooding, ministers and officials can identify areas where people have less mobility, and target these if evacuation is needed.

This capability will strengthen the government’s approach to crisis management and better protect vulnerable people – learning from past events such as the Covid-19 pandemic.