The opening of a new Government centre near York marks a step change in the way the country will prepare for future crises and emergencies, a minister has said.
Pat McFadden said the new UK Resilience Academy outside Easingwold would help the country adapt to a rapidly-changing world.
And the training provided there would benefit local services, businesses and national organisations.
The academy, which opened yesterday (Monday), is set to train at least 4,000 people a year at its campus in the Hawkhills estate.
Courses on crisis management, crowd management, continuity planning and others will be provided to civil servants, emergency services and armed forces staff and workers from businesses.
The training is designed to help organisations cope with crises including extreme weather like flooding and storms and energy shortages.
The Hawkhills estate previously hosted the Emergency Planning College and the new academy’s facilities include a lecture theatre, conference centre, classrooms and on-site accommodation.
Its opening comes alongside the launch of a new risk vulnerability tool which will harness data to identify groups particularly in need of help during emergencies.
They include elderly people people who need help with food supplies, households at risk of power cuts and and people who need to be evacuated ahead of floods.
The software, developed by the National Situation Centre and Office for National Statistics, has drawn on lessons learnt from the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
New occupational standards for emergency workers which the Government has billed as the biggest update in a generation have also been announced.
Uncertain world
Mr McFadden said at the UK Resilience Academy’s opening that the new facility, software and standards together aimed to help the country cope in an increasingly uncertain world.
The minister said the academy would be a major asset that was needed amid events like US President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes, the war in Ukraine and following the pandemic.
He added the new Risk Vulnerability tool had been designed to ensure the Government is equipped to aid those who need help the most during times of crisis.
Mr McFadden, who’s the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the Govenment wanted to take a society-wide approach to preparing for and responding to emergencies.
He added it the most pressing risks that the facility would help cope with were power outages, terrorism, energy shortages and transport incidents.
The minister said: “This isn’t just a matter for the Government, what happens to a business if it’s payment systems go out?
“It’s important that we take a whole of society approach, from national organisations to resilience forums and in local areas.
“One of the things that’s struck me the most is how much people involved in resilience talk about human relationships and trust, as one said we can surge money in a crisis but we can’t surge trust.
“This facility contributes to developing that level of trust because if something happens to a community the key people will have been hear and will be prepared.
“This centre and the new software will be more broader than services have been before.
“During the coronavirus pandemic we had a crisis that exposed inequality, the new software is a tool that helps us map out who’s really vulnerable in an area.
“These aren’t things that we’ve had before, it’s a step change.”