UK Resilience Academy launched and vulnerable persons guidance published by government

Several important community news items have been released by the Cabinet Office:

1. The UK Resilience Academy was officially launched by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on Monday 28th April at an event held in Easingwold. You can now visit the UK Resilience Academy website to discover more about its mission, collaborations, and the resilience training, education, expertise, and resources it offers. While its physical location remains at the Hawkhills in North Yorkshire, the Academy is expanding its digital and offsite presence to work with partners both online and at other locations across the UK. The UKRA is actively engaging with organisations and institutions across the resilience sector who wish to formalise partnerships with a Memorandum of Understanding, which encourages collaboration on training and education. The Academy aims to be the central point of a growing national network, collaboratively advancing resilience and sharing expertise with partners throughout the UK.
2. Updated guidance on Identifying and supporting persons who are vulnerable in an emergency has been published on GOV/UK by the Cabinet Office. This replaces the previous guidance from 2008 on Identifying people who are vulnerable in a crisis. A summary note is available at the GOV/UK website, highlighting changes from the 2008 document. An earlier version of this updated guidance has been accessible to emergency responders via ResilienceDirect since April 2024, and this latest version incorporates feedback from a variety of voluntary, community, and faith sector organisations. The guidance provides a common approach and principles for identifying and building relationships with agencies and organisations responsible for supporting vulnerable persons, so that the potential scale and mechanism of support to a response can be agreed before an emergency. Other organisations may benefit from familiarity with the approach in this guidance if they are involved in planning or providing for the needs of vulnerable persons.

Additionally

1. The government is consulting on whether a national day for victims and survivors of terrorism should be introduced. This consultation opened in March and closes at 11:59pm on 11 June 2025.
2. Earlier this month the Met Office launched its WeatherReady summer campaign. You can help spread the word about the range of simple actions people can take to minimise the impact of any severe weather on them by using the campaign advice and toolkit. The toolkit contains email signature images, top tips posters in 7 languages for use in community spaces, social media graphics and suggested post copy, and animated graphics. Please show your support of the campaign by engaging with and re-sharing Met Office posts throughout the season or by using the hashtag #WeatherReady as part of your own advice on social media. Materials for use are available at this website or at this GoogleDrive. If you are unable to access the toolkit, please contact the Met Office at [email protected].
3. The National Occupational Standards for Resilience and Emergencies have been developed by The Workforce Development Trust in partnership with the UK Resilience Academy. The standards, previously known as the National Occupational Standards for Civil Contingencies, were created with input from over 375 industry experts, resilience professionals and stakeholders. The extensive cross-sector consultation ensures the standards reflect a comprehensive approach to resilience, empowering the workforce to address current challenges while preparing for those of the future. The Resilience and Emergencies NOS mark a significant step forward in building the capacity, capability and consistency of the resilience workforce across the UK.
4. This sixth edition of the UK Resilience Lessons Digest is the first in the series to be released under the UK Resilience Academy. Presented in its new improved format, the Digest continues to deliver on the central government commitment to synthesise and share lessons from exercises and emergencies. This edition has a thematic focus on learning from cyber incidents and includes a foreword by Jonathon Ellison, Director of National Resilience, National Cyber Security Centre.