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Day Two at the National Conference on Societal Resilience 2026

Communities, Capability and the Momentum We Can’t Afford to Lose


If Day One established why societal resilience matters, Day Two demonstrated what it looks like in practice, in communities, in systems, and in the lived experiences of people navigating disruption. The day was marked by candour, evidence, and a growing recognition that the UK is poised to treat societal resilience as a long-term, whole-of-society endeavour.


Across all sessions, three themes consistently surfaced:


  • community capability is real and growing;

  • the evidence base has arrived;

  • and national ambition is shifting — but must be co-created.


This article summarises the sessions, speakers and key insights from the day.


The Economics of Resilience: Why Investment Pays Off


The session opened with findings from an 18-month Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis — a sector-wide effort involving partners across Cumbria, including Cumbria CVS and the EA/DEFRA-funded CiFR project. The aim was straightforward: to build a transparent model showing what investments are made to strengthen societal resilience and how those investments prevent losses and create savings when disruption occurs.


Drawing on 90 consultations with people directly affected by, or responsible for planning for, disruptions, the project identified and assessed 74 measures that collectively form a monetised understanding of where value is created. The approach was refined through widespread sector consultation and expert review, ensuring that the final model reflects shared experience rather than any single organisation’s view.


The resulting headline is clear and practical: every £1 invested in societal resilience generates £35.12 of public value. This figure does not claim novelty for novelty’s sake; it quantifies what many practitioners have long observed. Resilience investment reduces demand on services, avoids avoidable losses, and strengthens community-level capability in ways that save money system-wide.

Key findings included:


  • Individuals remain the largest contributors to resilience-building.

  • Government receives the greatest portion of savings when shocks occur.

  • Community groups deliver exceptional value (£5,000 invested → £176,000 returned).

  • Staff time provides a particularly strong return as the enablers and facilitators for community action.  (£50,000 invested → £917,000 in government savings; £1.75m in wider societal value).


For local authorities, VCS partners and national bodies, the implications are pragmatic: the sector now has a credible, transparent and collectively reviewed financial model that can be used to underpin business cases, support spending reviews, and align resilience work with organisational priorities. The analysis is not a fixed answer but a tool, one that can be adapted, challenged and applied to secure investment where it will have the greatest impact.



Trauma-Informed Community Resilience: Lessons from Brazil to New Zealand


Paul Cull of Monash University brought an international perspective through the C3P trauma-informed framework. His case studies illustrated how communities design and operate emergency hubs when equipped with tools, trust and autonomy.


Key insights highlighted:


  • Community mapping using simple, tactile tools such as laminated maps and local knowledge.

  • Hub designs that reflect local culture — pet areas, prayer spaces, quiet rooms, first aid zones.

  • Horizontal coordination often outperforming traditional command structures.

  • Persistent demand for training, particularly in psychology and volunteer management.

  • A substantial gap between community-led initiatives and official engagement.


His conclusion was unequivocal: trauma-informed practice is not optional — it is foundational to capability, trust and durable resilience.



3. “Act Without Permission”: The Blaenau Gwent Story


One of the most engaging sessions came from Deanne Griffiths and Councillor George Humphreys, who offered a candid, down-to-earth account of how a small local incident became a turning point for community–council collaboration.

The story began with a seemingly minor but consequential issue: during Storm Bert, a builder’s bag blocked a culvert in upper Cwm, causing unexpected flooding. In an effort to help, residents breached a wall to redirect the water downhill, assuming the drainage system would cope. It didn’t. The drains in lower Cwm hadn’t been cleared, and the redirected flow resulted in severe flooding, with roads and properties submerged.


What followed was not blame, but rebuilding, of trust, capability and working relationships.


The speakers highlighted how the council had to listen, show humility, and work with residents to understand what had happened and how to prevent it happening again. Residents, in turn, were clear: they didn’t want to sidelined, they wanted to be trained, involved and treated as partners.


Their key lessons:


  • Communities want partnership, not permission. People want to be prepared, not sidelined, when things go wrong.

  • The Blaenau Gwent Deal reframed the relationship around capable communities supported to act rather than stopped from acting.

  • The community created the Cwm Flood Task Force, which now monitors drains, watches river levels, manages sandbags and maintains communications networks.

  • NCSR modules gave both residents and officers shared language, structure and confidence.

  • The new community hub is a capability that can now deal with water outages, snow, crime issues and local incidents, becoming a practical asset, not just an “emergency” space.

  • Elected members can be powerful connectors when they engage early and consistently.


What makes this example compelling is its realism: it wasn’t a catastrophic event that drove change, but a preventable problem that highlighted gaps — and a willingness on all sides to tackle them together. The Blaenau Gwent story shows how trust, shared learning and modest, practical capability-building can transform a moment of adversity into a replicable model of community-led resilience.


4. The VCS, Youth and Housing: The Wider Ecosystem of Resilience


The lightning talks offered practical insight from across the voluntary, community and housing sectors.


Staffordshire Resilience Forum – Bethan Morgan

A reminder that resilience materials must be genuinely accessible. When packs are seen as overwhelming or where barriers to assets and resources exist this can prevent any further engagement, making this scalable, practical and adaptable to local contexts is imperative. When packs were rewritten for an 8–10-year reading age and co-created with communities, engagement rose sharply.


Communities Prepared – Jesse Moon

A compelling case for involving children in resilience education. Young people hold unique local knowledge, influence adult behaviour and expand social networks. When taught appropriately, they strengthen both households and communities.


Abri Housing Association – Melissa Kennedy

Two significant fires revealed the complexity of housing-led recovery. Lessons centred on:


  • resident-first approaches

  • honest, ongoing communication

  • structured mobilisation

  • recognising the long tail of trauma


Housing associations emerged as critical, though often overlooked, partners embedded within communities.


5. Water, Drought and the Realities of Chronic Risk

Kim Williams of South West Water delivered a sobering assessment of drought and water outages. The impacts are immediate and wide-ranging:

  • reduced sanitation and increased disease transmission

  • strain on care settings

  • misinformation and panic buying

  • potential civil unrest

  • persistent regional inequalities in resilience

She noted that the UK's social culture has not yet adapted to water scarcity. Preparedness exists in policy, but not in practice. The call was clear: improve public understanding, strengthen upstream education, and embed water efficiency behaviourally.


6. The Closing Panel: Opportunity, Momentum and National Direction


Chaired by Robyn Knox, the closing panel brought together Stuart Armstrong (Defra), Becky Heginbotham-Blount (Cabinet Office) and Andy Heath (Cabinet Office). The conversation was refreshingly candid.


Key messages included:


  • National clarity paired with local action is essential — and the tension between them must be managed, not erased.

  • A national dialogue on preparedness is anticipated to begin in 2026.

  • Government recognises its limitations as a trusted messenger; humility is critical.

  • Co-development with communities and the VCS is the only viable route forward.

  • The SROI analysis will inform the next Spending Review.

  • Start small, work with those ready to engage, and build momentum.

  • Persistence remains the sector’s most powerful asset.


The panel also raised questions about democratic innovation, citizen assemblies and the need for better alignment of funding streams across government.


7. A Human Closing: “It’s You, It’s Your Care, and Your Care for People”


Professor Duncan Shaw closed the day with a powerful reminder of the human foundation of resilience:


“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed people can do something to change the world together.”


“It’s you, it’s your care, and your care for people — that’s societal resilience.”


It was a fitting conclusion to a day that demonstrated the strength of collaboration between communities, practitioners and policymakers.


Final Reflections

Day Two revealed a sector that is:

  • increasingly confident in its capability

  • more connected across disciplines

  • more evidence-driven than ever

  • more honest about the challenges

  • more ambitious about the future


Societal resilience is no longer a peripheral concept; it is becoming a practical, shared ambition built on relationships, evidence and capability. The closing panel made it clear that the momentum is steady and growing. The question now is not whether we continue — but how we strengthen and accelerate the work, together.

……..

Thank you to everyone who helped make Day One of the 4th National Conference on Societal Resilience (2026) such a success. The event was organised by the National Consortium for Societal Resilience [UK+], hosted by The University of Manchester, and delivered in association with the RBOC Network+, Noggin, and the VCS Emergencies Partnership.


Your contributions, insights, and commitment to strengthening everyday societal resilience continue to drive this movement forward.


Past National Briefings on Societal Resilience


For those wishing to explore how the UK+ societal resilience agenda has evolved, past conference outputs are available here:


ICPEM Blogs & Previous Conference Summaries


My own summaries and reflective blogs from earlier NCSR conferences can also be found via the Institute of Civil Protection & Emergency Management (ICPEM):



 
 
 

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