Civil society must be recognised as “critical national infrastructure” in UK crisis preparedness planning, a new report argues.

The UK’s ability to withstand and recover from crises is dependent on networks of trust, mutual aid and voluntary infrastructure that mobilise during emergencies, the Community, Not Catastrophe report says.

The report, published by the social research charity the Young Foundation in partnership with the Local Trust and supported by the VCS Emergencies Partnership, examines how people, communities and voluntary organisations consistently step up during emergencies or disasters, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, floods, terrorist attacks or civil unrest.

“The ability to organise, co-ordinate and support UK citizens in times of crisis and recovery relies heavily on the charity and voluntary sectors and on high levels of mutual aid and support by neighbours and community leaders,” the report says.

“The reach and scale of that charitable and voluntary activity and distributed infrastructure demands recognition, support and investment as part of any national resilience strategy.”

The report says the range of threats, risks and predictable crises facing the UK is “growing rapidly”, adding: “Not all of these can be prevented or mitigated.”

It urges the government to recognise civil society as critical national infrastructure in the UK during times of crisis response, saying: “Civil society and communities continually and consistently respond to local need as they work through crisis, trauma response and, over time, recovery.”

“As critical national infrastructure, we would be in steep, precipitous decline without civil society in the event of a serious, national interruption to our daily lives.”

The report recommends that a “whole society” approach to preparedness should be underpinned by a common set of principles – including equity, experience and participation – to better guide all actors in their different roles and responsibilities in a crisis.

These principles should be applied to all national and local preparedness strategies and planning activities, the report says, with all state actors being held accountable for their implementation.

The report also says that current levels of awareness and understanding of preparedness across the UK are too low, urging for improved national messaging through trusted networks, combined with context and community-specific information.

This shared communications strategy should be developed in partnership with civil society organisations, the report says. 

It recommends that exercises to boost resilience should be designed and delivered with communities to build confidence and skills to enable improved responses in times of crisis.

The report also pushes for improved data collection to assess the levels of household or community preparedness across the UK, as well as for local civil resilience infrastructure to be built, with clearly identified spaces for public access to information, training and safety.

Helen Goulden, chief executive of the Young Foundation, said: “The role of the public, communities and the voluntary sector is downgraded in many national policy debates about crisis preparedness. That needs to change.”

She added: “It’s proved time and again that community groups, informal networks and neighbours are more trusted than government when crisis hits.

“If we don’t learn from these experiences and shift our approach now, we risk devastating consequences for our most vulnerable communities when – not if – the next crisis occurs.”

Robyn Knox, director of VCS Emergencies Partnership, said: “We must recognise charities and community groups as we understand what it is that makes our households, neighbourhoods and communities resilient.

“This report is a timely reminder of the lead role the voluntary and community sector plays in resilience-building.”