UK government launches new website offering advice on disaster preparedness and donations

The new government resilience website, launched by the Deputy Prime Minister yesterday at the London Defence Conference, provides simple steps people can take to be more prepared for UK emergencies.

Part of the government’s wider work to build resilience across the whole of society, it offers accessible and actionable advice for individuals, households and communities, both to improve their resilience to a range of risks and help them support their communities when emergencies arise.

The website includes information across three key areas: being prepared for emergencies, being informed about hazards, from floods to wildfires and terror attacks and getting involved in your community.

In his speech yesterday, Oliver Dowden, Deputy Prime Minister announced the new national Resilience Academy which will see several thousand people trained to deal with crises this year and next year.

“I am also pleased to launch the new National Exercising Programme. This plan schedules training over the next 4 years and is designed to test as many of the common knock-on effects of crises as possible.

Importantly, next year, five years on from the heart of the first lockdown, we will conduct a major ‘Tier 1’ exercise, testing our response to a major pandemic, this will be the largest ever simulation of a pandemic in the UK and will involve thousands of people from across government and public services.”

The National Emergencies Trust participated in the government’s collaborative working group to develop the community section. As well as information on volunteering, and advice for community groups, it provides signposts to where the public can donate to those affected by disasters.

During localised emergencies, the public are directed to UK Community Foundations to find out if there’s a local appeal. For national emergencies, visitors are directed to the National Emergencies Trust website where a national appeal would be live. While the Disasters Emergencies Committee (DEC) is signposted for those wishing to donate during international disasters.

Mhairi Sharp, CEO of the National Emergencies Trust, said: “We were very pleased to collaborate with government on the development of the Prepare website, which is an important step forward in UK resilience-building. In addition to important preparedness advice, the information on how people can donate during disasters will be invaluable during future emergency events.

“We know the UK public is incredibly generous in the aftermath of emergencies but it’s not always clear where people can donate, and this can lead to a myriad of individual crowd funding pages. More than 10,000 public giving pages were set up in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, for instance, making it extremely complicated for the charity sector to ensure funding made it quickly to those in great need.

“By signposting where to donate during different types of disasters, the Prepare website will help people quickly find a trusted place to give, and ensure funds raised can start to make a difference to those affected as quickly as possible.”

The gov.uk/prepare site is designed for residents in England. The devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also provide advice for their residents.

To read similar articles, check out our Frontline channel.