Principles and approach

Building community resilience into policy and practice using joined-up methods

It is important that community resilience is recognised as not being the responsibility of one organisation alone, or of a single functional team within any organisation. All organisations which have a stake in building community resilience should be involved, and their responsibilities should be clearly defined. Within organisations, those services which have important roles are not limited to those with lead responsibility for emergency planning or resilience. For example, within a local authority, important contributions can be made by:

• Social care and policy teams with an awareness of demographics, location of vulnerable people in the community and other socio-economic analysis, and a direct link to members of communities
• Sustainable development teams which have a remit around climate change adaptation
• Community engagement teams which have existing links with communities and a capacity building agenda
• Geographical Information Services teams, often based in planning departments
• Roads departments, which will have knowledge of gritting routes

There are potential roles for all emergency responder organisations to play in building community resilience. It is important that the approach taken is strategic and coordinated at the appropriate levels in order to ensure that the benefit of shared experience is maximised, and duplication avoided. It is recommended that responders consider the following roles, which are based on practice that has proved effective:

Scottish Government: Setting strategic direction, determining national policy, developing national resources and carrying out national level analytical work.

RRPs: Bringing together all the relevant organisations in an area to develop an effective approach to dealing with emergencies. They have robust plans in place to respond to all kinds of events. These plans are regularly tested in joint exercises and during real emergencies.

Local Authorities: Leading on engagement with communities, promoting and supporting community emergency planning, promoting resilience education through schools, supporting local training and exercising with community groups.

All responders (including voluntary sector): Sharing and amplifying public information campaigns, services aimed at household and individual resilience, initiatives such as first aid training, participating in education initiatives through schools.

It is as important to consider the source of a message as it is to consider its content and recipients. Responders should consider that they may not be the best source of information or advice and should consider working with voluntary sector intermediaries, such as Third Sector Interfaces, to ensure that the organisations that engage with communities are those which can do so most effectively.

This guidance advocates taking an approach to building community resilience which is based on the idea of community development. This means providing individuals and groups of people with the knowledge and skills they need to effect change in their own communities, through a process of Empowerment, Engagement, Education, , Enablement and Evaluation. When planning initiatives designed to improve community resilience it is helpful to consider the extent to which these “5Es” are used.

Empowerment

Responders should ensure that individuals and communities feel empowered to take action. This may require some cultural change both on behalf of responders and communities. Communities should be aware of the risks that face them, the actions that they can take individually and collectively to prepare, respond and recover.

Critically, through engagement, encouragement and education, responders should foster a culture in which individuals and communities feel they have an opportunity and responsibility to take action.

Engagement

Dialogue and engagement between responder organisations and communities is at the heart of this approach. Responders often play the role of experts, disseminating information to communities. Engagement means that they should develop an approach based on listening to individual and community concerns, and focus on helping to shape and influence their decisions.

The National Standards for Community Engagement, which provide best practice guidance for engagement between communities and public agencies, are available at: National Standards for Community Engagement | SCDC - We believe communities matter

The principles of the Standards are:

• Inclusion: people and organisations that are affected by the engagement should be identified and involved.
• Support: barriers to participation will be identified and overcome
• Planning: the engagement has a clear purpose, based on a shared understanding of community needs and ambitions
• Working together: all stakeholders should work effectively together to achieve the aims of the engagement
• Methods: methods of engagement used should be fit for purpose
• Communications: the people, organisations and communities affected by the engagement should be communicated with clearly and regularly
• Accurate, timely information is crucial for effective engagement

Education

Building more resilient communities involves cultural change. While there are things that can be done in the short term, it is also a long term project, in which learning plays a key role. Educating individuals and communities about resilience should be embedded into their everyday lives and should connect with them. Education about resilience is most effective when it is linked to real life experiences.

Enabling

The involvement of the voluntary sector is crucial to ensuring the resilience of communities, and voluntary sector organisations will be supported to collaborate effectively and consistently with emergency responders. e.g. the Voluntary Sector Resilience Partnership is a national forum which brings together voluntary and public sector response organisations and encourages collaboration and improvement.

Evaluating

Resilience initiatives should be evidence-based in design, and routinely evaluated in order to identify best practice and key learning points, and guide future work. Good practice in evaluation is promoted with all initiatives with which we engage. The Communities Channel Scotland has links to resources to help measure the impact of community-based initiatives.