Societal Resilience… whose line is it anyway?

A voluntary sector perspective on the National Consortium for Societal Resilience – 2023 Conference.

Professor Duncan Shaw welcoming us to the conference

I am on the train home from two days at the National Consortium for Societal Resilience’s first conference.

Professor Duncan Shaw, the humble but illustrious leader of this merry consortium, came to a small number of us six months ago with the idea of a face to face get together. In a post pandemic, “will people bother to travel” world, I’m grateful that he, and his compadres at Alliance Manchester Business School decided to risk it.

The conference was open to all, and a formidable selection of brains gathered in the impressive business school; academics, voluntary sector, business, health, national government representatives alongside local authority and resilience representatives (the largest collective amongst us).

Our collective challenge was how to turn a national ambition for societal resilience into reality at a local level.

I’m pooped, but what a fantastic couple of days. Energising, creative, challenging and with a real shift from what you might have expected from a conference of this sort just a few short years ago.

The key themes that came out over the two days were

1. Agreement that this isn’t just about coordinated response.
2. Building trust is everything.
3. We need to think differently about who is shaping, informing, building resilience.
4. Meaningful connection, engagement and listening to communities is essential.
5. Interoperability of key players and alignment of approaches is how we’ll achieve this.
6. The impact of resilience building must be demonstrable and measurable…. And that’s exceptionally difficult.

Colin Payne, Head of Strategy in Resilience and Recovery (DLUHC)

How did it go? Did we crack it?

Well, firstly, I was delighted that a small but mighty group of representatives from the VCS Emergencies Partnership came along. The voices of RE:ACT, Support Staffordshire, Business in the Community, Hull CVS, Communities Prepared, British Red Cross, Charity Retail Association, and Muslim Charities Forum were there. Alongside them, local government partners from Local Government Association and Greater Manchester Combined Authority were present and national government partners Mary Jones (Cabinet Office) and Colin Payne (DLUHC) – both with key speaking roles – also championed our partnership as critical to achieving this goal. Great company to be in.

Panel Discussion on how to align resilience strategies and capability. (L-R; Robyn Knox, Lesley Speedie, Roisin Jordan, Melvin Hartley, Hannah Tankard, Andrew McClelland)

We asked some of our partners for their thoughts and takeaways on the event, the challenges tackled and what’s still to overcome….

Here are the headlines from our VCS partners:

1. This is a marathon, not a sprint. A hugely broad and complex challenge that will take many attempts to achieve change, “this is the start, we can’t look for answers right here and now, but we can build the conversations to start to take action and identify where you can make the best wins” (Paul Etches, British Red Cross).
2. This was a fantastic opportunity to network, connect, learn and share ideas. “Broadening VCS connections with statutory partners is hard to do, and this was an open and creative space. Nothing beats face to face, there was tonnes of time to explore opportunities with all sorts of interesting people” (Luke Cox, RE:ACT). “What a great opportunity to engage directly with Cabinet Office, share reflections and hear from a wide spectrum of sectors” (Henry Moggridge, British Red Cross). “It’s nice to hear Greater Manchester is going the right way and is viewed as a positive example of this work. Our action and next steps are to continue to find ways to share this and continue the learning” (Sulafa Abushal, Greater Manchester Combined Authority).
3. The conversation was different to what many of us expected. “A real departure from the focus on coordinated response and much more on reducing likelihood and impact for communities in the first place – about strengthening the connections in communities to make them stronger… that’s our bread and butter, we’re doing it, and can help” (Garry Jones, Support Staffordshire).
4. Perceptions of “what are the risks and emergencies” are not aligned across society. The ‘emergency and resilience community’ sees risks in terms of fires and floods (et al), communities see risks in terms of personal and societal safety and crises. We need to move away from traditional risk management and preparedness, and talk more about what makes a community feel safer, stronger and more connected. “Society’s most underserved individuals are in survival mode, there is an inherent lack of safety, of feeling secure. We can’t move past that into thinking about risks and resilience until that core need is addressed” (Anna Pashley, Charity Retail Association).
5. There’s a real appetite for more storytelling and examples that bring both successful and failed approaches to life. “If the ask is for more specific case studies of successful application on the ground and if the wiser man learns from the mistakes of others, let’s bring that into the conversation. Hull CVS can be at the heart of making that happen” (Matthew Wright, Hull CVS).
6. Meaningful engagement with and listening, trumps broadcast communication, “there seems to be an emphasis and greater focus on the soft skills that allow you to bring the message to the people in a way that means something to them” (Matthew Wright, Hull CVS). “There is a long pedigree of community development work within VCS partners. We need to bring that expertise into the resilience space, to create those safe spaces where communities feel that they are at the heart of the resilience conversations, rather than having ‘resilience done to them’ by some external body” (Nick Drew, Communities Prepared).
7. Many tangible suggestions for helpful connections to make locally. “Involving academia, I want to connect with the universities locally to help with recruitment of new volunteers but also now the wider resilience conversation – also to join up to community groups and see what they are doing. I want and need to listen” (Henry Moggridge, British Red Cross). “This conference has reinforced the need to continue to engage with all forms of the voluntary sector and look for those community hubs that already exist. Not just as a way to inform but to learn from and shape. Charity Shops are a great pathway to connecting with the community” (Anna Pashley, Charity retail Association), “The role of young people, the power of education, the curriculum and schools as agents for change, to challenge misinformation and empower future generations in what builds resilience is an exciting and under-tapped opportunity” (Marcus Bowen, VCS Emergencies Partnership).

Some challenges on what’s still needed:

1. There is a real risk that the LRFs leave here feeling as though this is all on their shoulders. We need to move to a space where other structures (like but not limited to the VCS) can enable and support some of this with the LRF. “When you listen to the contributions of community groups and local organisations in the room, they have huge resources and networks that will make the difference”(Hannah Tankard, Business in the Community) “we need to work out what bottom up really looks like, the VCS has access to genuine connections and frontline knowledge – we really need to ensure that genuine impact is feeding into resilience strategy” (Baris Varli, Muslim Charities Forum).
2. We have to address diversity of thought in the room, there were some VCS, business and community reps there, but there were lots of parts of the system missing… “we need more business representation, for example from local Chambers of Commerce. Government will hear even more of the key actions required on resilience when the business community collectively engages with this topic, alongside different sectors. Businesses of all sizes and sectors could lend real tangible weight to these discussions” (Hannah Tankard, Business in the Community), “huge elements of the conversation have resonance with health and social care – if we don’t do this well, that’s where people end up, either as an acute result of an emergency or down the road as a consequence of consistently overlooking vulnerability – Public Health, NHS, children and family services all support this, they don’t call it ‘resilience’ but it’s about people in communities looking after each other” (Garry Jones, Support Staffordshire).

Reflections from others in the room beyond the VCS will be interesting to hear over the coming days and weeks as we build our collective efforts in making this a reality.

For now, and to close, this is the commitment I made to the room, and to the NCSR+ team about what the VCS Emergencies Partnership is going to actually do about it….

• With government: Our Partnership will continue to raise the voice and expertise of the VCS, and give a platform to those seldom heard and underserved in emergencies in the national, regional and local forums that we are in.
• With NCSR+: Our Partnership will support ongoing open and accessible sharing of stories, findings, good practice and interesting failings across our respective networks.
• With all resilience partners: Our Partnership will position and connect local infrastructure and community groups, hubs and the unique and specialist skills of both community and specialist partners with statutory agencies. We will also open up our national and local events and activities to the NCSR+ network to continue this spirit of sharing and connectivity.

We look forward to the next iteration of the NCSR+ Strategy and guidance for building societal resilience, future webinars and who knows, maybe even more regular face to face get togethers that help us make this a reality.

What do we do now? Commitments to taking action (L-R, Duncan Shaw, Sulafa Abushal, David Powell, Colin Payne)