Build community resilience through fostering community ties and collaborative working

 

Credit: JRF

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Introduction

 

Some problems are too complex for one organisation to manage on their own: Extreme weather events and climate change fall into this category, as do efforts to tackle fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions. This section explores how collaboration can be developed across organisations and with the public, to address these issues and support local community resilience to climate change.

 

 

Working in collaboration

 

Collaboration can take various forms, from formal partnerships between agencies to co-production of services with the public. Less formal cooperation between different parties recognising the varying skills, roles and responsibilities and capacities each can offer, can also be important.

  • Partnership working can be defined as “an agreement between two or more independent bodies to work collectively to achieve an objective1" though partnerships can vary in their resources, scale and scope of participation.
  • An alternative approach, which gives more control to communities is to co-produce services: “Co-production means delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal relationship between professionals, people using services, their families and their neighbours. Where activities are co-produced in this way, both services and neighbourhoods become far more effective agents of change2.” This approach recognises the resources and skills of communities and that they can be a critical part of solutions.

 

There are several ways in which communities can participate in supporting actions that improve climate resilience. The National Council of Voluntary Organisation’s (NCVO) Pathways through Participation project identifies three forms of participation:

 

  • Public participation (activities between individuals and the state, e.g. through responding to public consultations);
  • Social participation (activities between individuals wholly or partly independent of the state, e.g. through community groups)
  • Individual participation (activities which are independently governed, e.g. personal donations)3.

This section primarily focuses on how public services could support public participation and work collaboratively together, but recognises that fostering community ties requires recognition of the other forms of participation which may also be important for climate change responses.

 

Evidence shows that collaborative working is worth the time and effort required to build networks, meet and discuss ideas, listen to and understand other perspectives and language, develop shared goals and work through problems and issues which emerge as this can often lead to new ideas, new insights and new resources which would otherwise be missed.    

 

Research carried out as part of the Climate Just project suggests that networks of organisations working with socially vulnerable groups, and networks of organisations working on issues associated with climate change and extreme weather are poorly connected and appear to operate largely independently. This has also been seen in community organisations where there is a lack of joint working between groups working on social justice, environmental and community themes4.

 

Nevertheless, there are opportunities for socially and environmentally focused networks to be brought together to support climate resilience at a local level. Local resilience fora are a useful network established for emergency planning while health and wellbeing boards provide an important opportunity to bring local government and health responses together. In addition there are regional branches of national organisations and agencies.

 

In addition regional branches of national organisations or subregional partnerships such as city regions could perform vital coordinating roles:

  • They support the flow of information between national and local organisations and also help to develop and maintain local networks of organisations
  • They act as knowledge brokers between different networks and organisations
  • They provide a forum to consider cross boundary issues; effective management of local climate impacts may only be achieved for example through consideration of wider processes affecting whole river catchments and conurbations.
  • Until recently these sorts of functions were provided by organisations like Climate UK and the regional climate change partnerships. There is now a need to look to other ways and other organisations to help to deliver these important functions. 

 

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References

  1. The Audit Commission, 2005. Governing Partnerships: Bridging the Accountability Gap. London: The Audit Commission.
  2. New Economics Foundation/ NESTA 2009. The Challenge of Co-production.
  3. NCVO (2011) Participation trends, facts and figures
  4. Johnson, V., Simms, A., Walker, P. and Ryan-Collins, J. (2010) Bridging the gap between climate change, resource scarcity and social justice. London: Carnegie UK Trust

 

Collaborative working with communities is important because it can give voice and power to people, and result in a set of wider benefits.

 

Organising flood protection © Environment Agency

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Benefits of working collaboratively

 

Co-operation between flood and coastal erosion risk management authorities is important because of the mutual benefits they can gain from working together and sharing information. The causes of flooding or coastal erosion can cross organisational boundaries and responsibilities (of Local Authorities or water companies for example). Innovative, co-ordinated and sustainable solutions will come from a willingness to co-operate and from

active partnerships between risk management authorities, private landowners, businesses, planning authorities and communities affected. 

 

After severe flooding in Cockermouth during 2009, both residents and the local authority realised that there was an opportunity to bring people together for flood recovery and to prepare for future flooding by working together. Local authority Planning and Development Control Officers linked up with community representatives and built environment professionals to discuss how Cockermouth could be transformed into a more resilient town. 

  • Watch the Cockermouth video clip telling the story of how a variety of people and interest groups were brought together through the formal planning process. The collaborative group includes officers from across Allerdale Borough Council’s Portfolio as well as voluntary groups, civic trusts and architects.
  • See Section 5 above (Further Resources) to read more about how community engagement can help to address issues associated with uneven participation.

 

Working with communities, particularly the most vulnerable ones, to shape the services that affect their neighbourhoods can increase a sense of ownership and pride, which leads to better, and more sustainable, outcomes1. On a personal level, participation is also known to improve confidence, self-esteem and satisfaction in those involved2.

 

Collaboration within and between organisations may also help to identify new ways to join-up for mutual benefit. Now that responsibility for local public health issues resides with local authorities, there is more opportunity for cooperation across departments, such as with spatial planning, building control, housing and emergency planning, as well as the voluntary and community sector. This can improve understanding of where the most socially vulnerable groups and disadvantaged communities are located and how they can be best engaged5.  The new public health arrangements in England are forging new partnerships as well as building on existing ones. This should allow the benefits of partnership working to be extended.

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for views on the benefits of partnership working between care home staff, GPs, patients and relatives, which can now be extended to building resilience to events like flooding and heatwaves. 

 

Often, centrally imposed plans and solutions may be less effective: it is important not to impose solutions on communities, but to work with them, which can help to build a picture of their concerns and ideas on how to respond6. In the town of Pickering, which suffered flooding in 2007, people in the affected neighbourhoods were involved in a new flood group along with local scientists and modellers. Involving the residents in dialogue with technical expertise from the beginning resulted in outcomes that were judged to be much more effective than relying only on expert knowledge.

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for more information about how the outcomes were achieved.

 

Both local and central government in the United Kingdom are being asked to “do more” but with fewer resources. Collaboration between organisations and with communities can help to pool resources and to share risks. Co-operation involves organisations and individuals working together to achieve more effective results than they could achieve through working alone. Co-operation is built on trust, good communication, sharing information and resources, and an improved understanding of the mutual benefits it can bring. Co-operation respects the interests of those concerned, while at the same time promoting the wider interests of the group and its stakeholders. This will enable access to a wider array of skills and assets. Under the Flood Water Management Act (FWMA) 2010, for example, lead local flood authorities are required to operate a partnership funding system and this emphasises the role of local communities and the benefits which can be gained as a result.

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for views on and examples of partnership working for building flood resilience. 

 

Co-producing services can help to relieve burden and stress on public services, and actively involving those who may be vulnerable within this process can deepen their social networks, which in turn helps to build resilience7. However, the capacities of communities to act and the demands which this places on them also must be recognised and accounted for. Figure 1 shows some of the reasons why people do or don’t volunteer. The findings from the NCVO’s Pathways through Participation project, suggested that people may not feel able to participate due to a lack of time or money, a lack of appropriate skills, knowledge and experience, a lack of available transport or due to having a range of existing responsibilities.

 

Figure 1: Reasons for participating or not participating with voluntary activities8.

 

Duties and responsibilities

 

There are a number of legislative drivers to encourage collaborative working, including for example:

  • The Flood and Water Management Act (FWMA) 2010 contains a statutory duty-to-cooperate and, in supplementary guidance, to share data across boundaries and sectors. The exact nature of these partnerships is left to local discretion.
  • The Environment Agency and lead local flood authorities will often take the lead for flood and coastal erosion risk management. They will develop, implement and maintain national and local risk management strategies. It is essential that other flood and coastal erosion risk management authorities offer their support if these strategies are to produce effective results. Local strategies in particular will often involve managing different types of flooding. Working together, co-operating and understanding objectives will help all risk management authorities buy-in to the local strategies and the desired results. Other risk management authorities (including district councils, water companies and internal drainage boards) can also take a lead role in cases where managing flood or coastal erosion risk is focused on their responsibilities.
  • The Civil Contingencies Act (2004) provides the legislative background for ‘multi-agency emergency plans’. Through local resilience forums and multi-agency flood plans, communities are becoming more involved. These groups are at their most effective when integrated with other public services and agencies – communities need support to achieve their objectives and may need help to support the most socially vulnerable.
  • The Health and Social Care Act (2012) requires the development of Joint Strategic Needs Assessments.
  • The Heatwave Plans for England, Scotland and Wales are non-statutory but requires joint-working between the health sector and with a range of other responsible organisations.
    • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for more information on roles and responsibilities and other reasons for action.

 

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References

  1. DCLG (2006) Strong and prosperous communities. The Local Government White Paper.
  2. Brodie, E., Cowling, E., Nissen, N, Ellis Paine, A., Jochum, V., and Warburton, D (2009) Understanding participation: A literature review.
  3. Skills for Health (2010) Careers in Healthcare: A Guide to Volunteering in Healthcare Organisations
  4. Benzie, M., Harvey, A., Burningham, K., Hodgson, N., & Siddiqi, A. (2011). Vulnerability to heatwaves and drought: adaptation to climate change. York, UK: The Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
  5. Hashagen, S., Kennedy, J.,  Paterson, A. and Sharp, C. 2011. Doing with, not to: community resilience and co-production [the implications for NHS Education for Scotland, Glasgow: Scottish Community Development Centre.
  6. Lane, S. N., Odoni, N., Landström, C., Whatmore, S. J., Ward, N. and Bradley, S. 2011. Doing flood risk science differently: an experiment in radical scientific method. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 36: 15–36. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2010.00410.
  7. David Boyle, Sherry Clark and Sarah Burns. 2006. Co-production by people outside paid employment. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
  8. National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) Participation: trends, facts and figures

 

 

Identify the nature of the problem in your area

 

Emergency services deployed during a flood © Environment Agency

 

Consider the vulnerabilities of neighbourhoods in your area using the Climate Just mapping tool as a starting point for understanding local community needs.

 

Identify the magnitude and likelihood of hazards associated with the changing climate, including flooding and heat-waves.

  • Consider how patterns of vulnerable groups and those who are less likely to engage with information about climate change compare with patterns of potential exposure to flooding and heat-waves. 
  • Draw on existing risk assessments, adaptation tools such as the UKCP09 projections (and the forthcoming UKCP18 which will update the UKCP09 projections over UK land areas and sea-level rise giving greater regional detail) and other local information (for example following the UKCIP Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP) process). See this example of an LCLIP for Greater Manchester. 
  • Examine the impacts of extreme weather events including their location, timing, costs and the effectiveness of responses to record local experiences and support continuous learning.
  • Review the case studies in the Further Resources section to see what others have done.

 

Consult your local Flood Risk Management Strategy

The local flood risk management strategy (LFRMS) must identify measures for managing local flood risk, including benefit cost appraisal, funding proposals and an implementation plan. Whilst LLFAs are mandated to reduce local flood risk, they cannot do this alone by simply improving the highways and public realm infrastructure over which they have direct responsibility. They will need to work in partnership with other stakeholders who have relevant responsibilities and/or assets (including highways and planning authorities, Water and Sewerage Companies, Internal Drainage Boards, the Environment Agency and other local authorities) to deliver improvements. Successful delivery of LFRM measures will require innovative ways of working and funding, based on teamwork and trust. Collaborative working and joint funding across partner organisations will be key to maximising the return on investment in flood risk management. Defra’s partnership funding approach means that the ability of LLFAs to leverage contributions (both financial and in kind) from local partners could make the difference between locally-important projects going ahead or not.

 

Consider the following actions to help build community resilience through fostering community ties and collaborative working. The landscape of support groups has changed considerably over the last few years, but there are still several resources and networks available to support adaptation: 

 

The Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS) within the Cabinet Office works in partnership to enhance the UK’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from, emergencies. It provides lots of information on community resilience, as well as tools and products that may help you develop your community emergency plan, including a useful guide, Preparing for Emergencies – Guide for Communities. It will help you think about how you can help your community be prepared for an emergency, including flooding.

  • Visit the CCS website for guidance and information on developing a community emergency plan – including a template.

Work with new and emerging local networks that could bring social and environmental agendas together. Local resilience fora established for emergency planning purposes could be an important resource where social and environmental representatives come together. While their focus and remit may be narrow, it is possible they could be active in wider thinking about climate resilience. In addition, the new public health authorities have a role in responding to the Heatwave Plan and Cold Weather Plan. They may be a good forum for bringing different ideas together on how to improve resilience to extreme weather.

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for a list of local resilience forums across the UK 

Join knowledge hubs and other forums for sharing ideas and experiences. The Local Government Association (LGA) Knowledge Hub (run throug a small independent company since 2016) offers a free service for all public sector professionals. The hub is designed to be an online space for a range of practitioners to share information on a number of topics, including about how to reach out within your local area. In addition the local government association has produced the flood risk portal with more information on flood risk management for local authorities. 

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for links to the Knowledge Hub and flood risk portal

 

Use existing guidance and resources to set up new partnerships.

  • The UK Cabinet Office’s Strategic National Framework on Community Resilience and related programme aims to help practitioners and communities to work together to improve resilience to climate impacts. It does this by providing a range of resources which can help to facilitate connections and break down some of the common barriers faced. Resources are intended to be consistent yet with sufficient flexibility to allow them to be made relevant to a range of local situations. Consider working with existing social networks in creating community resilience plans1. This can range from neighbourhood watch schemes to adult social clubs. Although in practice no two community resilience groups will be alike, general principles can still be applied.

  • See the Further Resources section for The Cabinet Office’s guidance and resources for setting up, working with, and maintaining community resilience groups.

  • The Environment Agency website contains a number of resources to support flood management. For example 'Who's responsible for flood and coastal erosion risk management', what they must do, and guidance on how to do it. It also contains guidance is for anyone involved in supporting communities or groups to improve their ability to plan for a flood, such as:
  • people active in the local community
  • leaders of community groups
  • schools, hospitals or residential care homes
  • local responders
  • people working in the voluntary sector
  • any other interested members of the community.

This flood plan guidance outlines things to consider and steps that you can take to inspire and involve residents, local communities and groups to work together to improve how you prepare for the risk of flooding.

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for links to further information on Guide to Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM), Community Engagement and Partnership Funding.

 

  • The National Flood Forum (NFF) already has over 160 affiliated community flood groups and can help with establishing one in your area. The NFF provides direct support to the public on a range of flood related issues, complementing that provided by the Environment Agency. They also provide a point of contact between communities and practitioners and offer training in relation to the work that they do.
    • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for links to the National Flood Forum

 

  • Defra’s Flood Resilience Pathfinder projects are also providing further learning about partnership working, and further learning will be emerging as a result. Projects associated with flooding are currently ongoing. They aim to protect a range of properties from flooding and stress tangible and measurable outcomes, such as reductions in household insurance premiums. A set of projects on coastal resilience are already completed and all were shown to have improved community resilience to some extent.
    • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for more information about the Pathfinder Projects

 

 

 

References

  1. Twigger-Ross, C., Coates, T., Deeming, H., Orr, P., Ramsden M. and Stafford, J. 2011. Community Resilience Research: Final Report on Theoretical research and analysis of Case Studies report to the Cabinet Office and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. Collingwood Environmental Planning Ltd, London.

 

 

Actions to take

 

1. Review the recommended general actions

 

2. Find out more about different forms of collaborative working, its principles and processes you can follow. Figure 1 illustrates the ‘participation pathway':

(1)    Find out what information is needed and identify the extent of participation required – identify your target groups as part of this process

(2)    Develop your strategy for outreach, including a set of proposed activities

(3)    Identify what resources are required to support the proposed activities and carry out a feasibility check.

(4)    Produce a detailed plan of actions, timescales, milestones and deliverables.

(5)    Prepare your final communication strategy for achieving your objectives.

Figure 1: The participation pathway

 

See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for guidance on working in partnership, for example from the Department for Communities and Local Government - Resilience and Emergencies Division (DCLG-RED), from Skills for Health for the health and social care sector and from the NCVO’s Volunteering for Stronger Communities project.

 

3. Identify existing partnerships and networks in your area, identify their scope and any overlapping groups or lead participants. Review what is in place and if you need to develop new networks and partnerships, start with your immediate colleagues and internal networks before engaging outside of your organisation. Partnerships need to be set up so that they meet local needs in the best way. They can be strategic or project specific. They can build on existing arrangements (such as sustainability forums, local resilience forums, or coastal partnerships) and can cover a range of activities before, during and after an event, such as sharing information, ways of working, communications, incident response, developing strategy, and designing new works.

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for a range of available resources and contacts to help.

 

4. Find out about local plans. Your local council has an emergency plan covering major incidents like flooding, flu pandemics and transport accidents . The Environment Agency has produced tools to help Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) consider the impacts of climate change on sources of local flood risk. This will help LLFAs to develop their local flood risk management strategies in England. As a LLFA, your local flood risk management strategy must:

  • assess the local flood risk
  • set out objectives for managing local flooding
  • list the costs and benefits of measures proposed to meet these objectives, and how the measures will be paid for 

• See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for a range of available resources and contacts to help.

 

 

5. Identify opportunities to connect professional networks of organisations working with vulnerable groups with those working on issues of climate change and extreme weather events. These connections may be effectively made through regional coordinating bodies and the regional branches of national organisations and agencies, such as those run by the voluntary and community sector, such as through NCVO or via local resilience fora.

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for a range of available resources and contacts to help.

 

6. Consider entering research partnerships with institutions and local universities.

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for case studies about different types of research partnerships, and what they can do to support your work.

 

7. Look for communities where there is a risk of floods or heatwaves but where the community may not be fully aware of it or does not perceive itself to be at risk. Without the initial knowledge, even a community with strong social ties and the ability to share information will not be able to build resilience1. Therefore awareness raising is an important first step, though it should also be linked with actions that give communities information on and agency to respond.

 

8. Identify community ‘champions’ or lead residents who can help to engage other residents who may otherwise be reluctant to get involved (e.g. in retrofitting their properties with flood resilience measures).

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for links to examples and sources of further information. The Irwell Valley Sustainable Communities project has recruited and trained community champions who, amongst other work, will be helping to raise flood awareness within their community as well as providing peer support on energy efficiency measures, which can help to ease the burden of rising fuel prices. Self-help materials are also available to support volunteer managers.

 

9. Recognise that potentially vulnerable groups, such as older people and tenants, may not be well integrated into local support networks and often do not receive assistance from neighbours during and after extreme weather events, such as floods2.  Fostering social and institutional networks, and connecting the most vulnerable groups into them, may lead to better neighbourhood support mechanisms. 

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for links to examples and sources of further information. For example Gloucester Village Agents initiative which specifically works with older people in order to promote healthy and independent living3.

 

10. Consider how community networks can specifically assist more vulnerable members of the community. For example during flood events, identify those who are more able can help to fit temporary flood resilience and resistance measures for those who are less able4.

  • See the Further Resources in Section 5 (above) for a case study about the Snow Angels network, which demonstrates how one neighbourhood in Cheshire uses these ideas to cope with extremely cold weather.

 

11. Consider that when householders are displaced because of flooding it can lead to an erosion of existing social networks and feelings of increased social isolation5. As well as negatively affecting individuals and making the recovery of affected communities longer and more difficult, this also puts stresses on the networks necessary to deliver on shared recovery plans.

 

12. Recognise that once people are brought together participants in a group could have different values, expectations and aims, or there may be a lack of clarity over roles or responsibilities. A Memorandum of Understanding, Terms of Reference or similar document, can help to clarify roles and responsibilities and to identify a point of contact. This may also be used to develop a shared understanding of key terms or points of reference, such as expected outputs and guiding frameworks. This is important because poor communication and split responsibilities can lead to ambiguity over what actions should be taken and who should take them, particularly in terms of climate change. This can lead to apathy within local communities and can be particularly prevalent in flooding where different agencies have different responsibilities6.

  • See the Further Resources section for examples of existing agreements between organisations. For example Gwent Local Resilience Group has developed a Memorandum of Understanding to meet the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) for working with voluntary groups during flood events.
  • See the Further Resources section for a link to the National Flood Emergency Framework for England (which contains links for equivalent guidance for organisations in the devolved administrations). The framework provides guidance for planning, building, maintaining and reviewing partnerships for flood emergency response in order to “protect human life and alleviate suffering; and, as far as possible, property and the environment” as given in the Cabinet Office’s Concept of Operations. The guidance stresses the need for effective communication and the identification of roles and responsibilities, specifically in relation to preparing and responding to flood emergencies.

 

13. Help professionals to move away from seeing adaptation as a problem that should be fixed to being an ongoing process and think about how the abilities within a given community can be better harnessed to increase resilience, as has been noted as important for responses to other issues7. This may require additional investments to build staff skills to work in new – and informal – ways.

  • Review the case studies in the Further Resources in Section 5 (above). This section also contains a list of tools and other resources which you may find helpful, including a case study explaining the process of building a community group and the work of the Transition Town network aiming to build community resilience and reduce carbon emissions.

 

 

Find out more

Older people

Practice Case study

Helping reduce social isolation during extreme weather: Snow Angels (Cheshire)

Find out more

Tenants in social or private rented housing

References

  1. Wolf, J.,  Lorenzoni, I.,  Few, R.,  Abrahamson, V., Raine, R. 2009. Conceptual and practical barriers to adaptation: vulnerability and responses to heat waves in the UK. In W.N. Adger, I. Lorenzoni, K.L. O’Brien (Eds.), Adapting to Climate Change: Thresholds, Values, Governance, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 181–196
  2. Parker, D.J., Tunstall, S.M., McCarthy, S., 2007. New insights into the benefits of flood warnings: Results from a household survey in England and Wales. Environmental Hazards 7, 193–210.
  3. White, I., O’Hare, P., Lawson, N., Garvin., S and Connelly, A. 2013. Six Steps to Flood Resilience: Guidance for Property Owners. University of Manchester, Manchester.
  4. Whittle, R. et al. 2010. After the Rain – learning the lessons from flood recovery in Hull, final project report for “Flood, Vulnerability and Urban Resilience: a real-time study of local recovery following the floods of June 2007 in Hull”, Lancaster University, Lancaster UK
  5. Bovaird, T. 2007. Beyond engagement and participation: User and community coproduction of public services. Public Administration Review, 67(5), 846-860.
  6. Zsamboky, M., Fernández-Bilbao, A., Smith, D., Knight, J., & Allan, J. (2011). Impacts of climate change on disadvantaged UK coastal communities. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
  7. David Boyle, Sherry Clark and Sarah Burns. 2006. Co-production by people outside paid employment. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

 

 

Tools and resources

Name

Developer

Type of Resource

Community Resilience Toolkit

Aimed at local communities and the organisations working with them, this set of resources supports the process of understanding local needs and developing emergency plans based on those needs.

Cabinet Office (UK)

Communities

Reports, checklists and case studies

Heatwave Plan for England (2013)

The plan provides the framework for action during specific periods of very hot weather. It includes an ‘equality analysis’ and other resources which can assist local decision-making.

Public Health England/NHS

Health and social care sector

Report and actions

National Flood Emergency Framework for England aims to support building the foundation for effective emergency responses to flooding. Links are given to equivalent guidance for the devolved administrations.

Defra (2013)

Emergency flood response guidance

Advice and information to support volunteers and volunteer managers

NCVO

Good practice bank

Flood and Coastal erosion: risk management authorities.

Who's responsible for flood and coastal erosion risk management, what they must do, and guidance on how to do it.

 Defra (2015) Resource
Flood Plan guidance for communitites and groups

Practical advice for communities and groups on preparing a flood plan and keeping safe during flooding.

 Defra (2012) Resource

 

Case Studies & Stories

Name

Developer

Type of Resource

Starting up a flood action group, Flood Action4 Buckingham

An example of one of the 160+ flood action groups supported which bring communities together, support people through the preparation process and provide a point of contact for the variety of agencies that help to manage flooding.

ClimateJust team with Roger Parkinson

Internal case study

Flood action groups

Working with your Community – how to set up a flood action plan. The webpages also link to further guidance and templates.

Buckinghamshire County Council

External case study

Community case studies of partnership working to reduce flood risk. Calderdale 9West Yorkshire, Charlton (Worcester), Purley (Surrey), Lostwithie (Cornwall).

National Flood Forum

External case study

 

Based in Cheshire, Snow Angels is the result of a partnership between organisations involved in health, housing, environmental & emergency planning and the local community to provide community-based responses to extreme cold weather in a rural area.

ClimateJust team with Cathy Boyd

Case Study (internal)

Fowley Brook Information about work on an urban river catchment in the City of Stoke-on-Trent. Built as a collaboration between the Environment Agency, Stoke on Trent City Council and Staffordshire University, the project also emphasises the role of local communities.

Environment Agency

Case Study (EA)

Environment Agency case studies of partnership working: Poole, Carlisle, Cornwall.

Environment Agency

Case studies (external)

Ecocities project – a multi-organisation research partnership.

University of Manchester

Case Study (internal)

CASE studentship – collaborating through PhD sponsorship.

Newcastle City Council and Northumbria University

Case Study (internal)

Defra pathfinder projects

Links to a number of projects which are trailing new community based initiatives to build resilience to flooding. A set of projects exploring community resilience to coastal erosion are already completed.

Defra

External web content

Gloucestershire Village and Community Agents Provides information and points of contact for the over 50s to support independent living and a good quality of life.

Gloucester Rural Community Council

Case study summary and website

Examples of the personal benefits of volunteering for young people.

vInspired

Case studies of personal stories (external)

Examples of a range of case studies in health and social care including working with socially isolated individuals, older people and those with a range of physical and mental health needs.

Skills for Health

Cases studies (external)

Personal case studies of volunteer benefits.

Voluntary Action Sheffield

Cases studies (external)

Examples of the range of benefits that volunteers have found as a result of participation.

VolunteerNow (Northern Ireland)

Case studies of personal stories

Transition Town initiative Information about the work of the UK-based transition town charity which aims to help support the dual aims of building community resilience and reducing carbon dioxide emissions in communities across the world.

Transition Network

Case study (internal)

 

References

The Audit Commission, 2005. Governing Partnerships: Bridging the Accountability Gap. London: The Audit Commission. 

Bovaird, T. 2007. Beyond engagement and participation: User and community coproduction of public services. Public Administration Review, 67(5), 846-860.

David Boyle, Sherry Clark and Sarah Burns. 2006. Co-production by people outside paid employment. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Benzie, M., Harvey, A., Burningham, K., Hodgson, N., & Siddiqi, A. (2011). Vulnerability to heatwaves and drought: adaptation to climate change. York, UK: The Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 

Brodie, E., Cowling, E., Nissen, N, Ellis Paine, A., Jochum, V., and Warburton, D (2009) Understanding participation: A literature review. 

DCLG (2006) Strong and prosperous communities. The Local Government White Paper.

Defra (2012) Coastal Change Pathfinder Review Final Report

Defra (2013) National Flood Emergency Framework for England

Hashagen, S., Kennedy, J.,  Paterson, A. and Sharp, C. 2011. Doing with, not to: community resilience and co-production [the implications for NHS Education for Scotland, Glasgow: Scottish Community Development Centre.

Holstein, A. N (2010) GRaBS Expert Paper 2 Participation in climate change adaptation

Johnson, V., Simms, A., Walker, P. and Ryan-Collins, J. (2010) Bridging the gap between climate change, resource scarcity and social justice. London: Carnegie UK Trust

Lane, S. N., Odoni, N., Landström, C., Whatmore, S. J., Ward, N. and Bradley, S. 2011. Doing flood risk science differently: an experiment in radical scientific method. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 36: 15–36. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2010.00410.

National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) Participation: trends, facts and figures

Twigger-Ross, C., Coates, T., Deeming, H., Orr, P., Ramsden M. and Stafford, J. 2011. Community Resilience Research: Final Report on Theoretical research and analysis of Case Studies report to the Cabinet Office and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. Collingwood Environmental Planning Ltd, London.

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