As 2023 is almost at a close, it’s the perfect time to reflect on what has been an incredible year for the EPC.
With the publication of the UK Government Resilience Framework this time last year, and the Deputy Prime Minster’s first annual Resilience Statement to Parliament, resilience has never been higher on the agenda.
As the centre for resilience learning and development in the UK, the EPC has been privileged to provide an increasing volume of impactful learning across all resilience specialisms and at all levels.
This year, we have delivered several programmes of work for a growing number of UK government departments – including the Home Office, GO-Science, DESNZ, DWP and DEFRA – as well as the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority public body.
We’re proud to have supported the development and delivery of the COBR Unit Crisis Management Excellence Programme (CMEP), a long-term programme set out to professionalise crisis management in government through a combination of formal training, informal knowledge sharing, exercising, and a cross-government community of like-minded professionals. We were also fundamental in developing and delivering the Emergency Alerts e-learning package following the first public live test in April.
Following the delivery of Exercise Mighty Oak earlier this year, we’ve seen increased demand for our exercising capability. The major national exercising programme was one of the largest UK exercises of the last decade.
We’ve continued to be amazed at the impact of the UK Resilience Lessons Digest. It has been incredible to see the knowledge shared around the world and it is highly regarded by resilience communities across the globe. The latest publication ‘Learning to Read Risks’ explores the national risk assessment process, approaches to risk, lessons of risk from the COVID-19 pandemic, and those risks highlighted in the 2023 National Risk Register. Work is underway for Issue 4, set to launch in Spring 2024, and we will once again have an exciting line up of guest authors and speakers to share their expertise and advice.
We’ve seen an increasing number of customers asking us to support them in identifying valuable lessons from incidents, exercising and events. Our popular advisory service is providing insight and evidence-based recommendations, which are being actively used to strengthen and build resilience capabilities.
We have also helped to build the new National Local Resilience Forum Training and Exercising Forum, which enables us to continue to support our many LRF partners with their learning needs.
As we move into 2024, our own learning journey continues. The insights gained from the UK Resilience Learning Needs Analysis and the valuable feedback we receive from our customers and Associates will help to evolve and drive our improvement activities to ensure the support we provide remains relevant and impactful.
I would like to thank all our customers, Associates and partners who’ve chosen to work with us in 2023. I hope you have a wonderful break over this festive period. I am looking forward to working with you again in 2024.
Deborah Higgins
Head of Emergency Planning Colleage
If you wish to find out more about how we can support you with your learning needs, we would love to hear from you.