National Conference on Societal Resilience

Resilience as a societal endeavour is taking hold as an exciting national ambition. During the height of COVID we learned so much about our communities and their ever-present compassion and willingness to support others when major emergencies bite. But we also learned about their hidden vulnerabilities and diversity of urgent and chronic needs.

This in-person conference will continue the national conversation on societal resilience.

National Conference on Societal Resilience

This conference is organised by the National Consortium for Societal Resilience [UK+] to bring together partners from policy and practice from across UK+ to share insights, learn together, hear about inspiring work, and identify opportunities on how to enhance societal resilience. The conference will provide a networking forum, aiming to inspire and galvanise further collaboration and action.

Attendees will collaboratively address the following topics, and more:

• What is the national-to-local ambition for societal resilience?
• What is the opportunity to deliver local societal resilience?
• What are the lessons from implementing strategy on societal resilience?
• What will we do now to locally shape societal resilience?

Attendees will learn about the national aspirations on whole-of-societal resilience, how to ‘sell’ societal resilience within their partnership/organization, strategy for local implementation of societal resilience, a step-wise approach to implementation, challenges and how people have overcome them. We will discuss the latest research, practice, and learning on how to operationalise societal resilience as a local resilience capability.

Conference programme

We are preparing the conference programme which will include leading policymakers, practitioners, and resilience experts from multiple sectors. This includes our keynote speakers Mary Jones, Resilience Director, UK Cabinet Office, and Colin Payne, Head of Strategy, Resilience and Recovery Directorate (RED), Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, as well as other leading voices in societal resilience from national and local government, voluntary and community sector, and business.

Day 1 will be held at Alliance Manchester Business School. Day 2 will be held at the Whitworth Hall at the University of Manchester. 

Aims of the conference

• Help to ‘sell’ and inspire local leads to spotlight societal resilience
• Strategise the future of local societal resilience
• Showcase successes and how challenges can be overcome
• Network to meet likeminded colleagues, and share learning

Who should attend?

The conference is aimed at all those who have an interest in strategizing societal resilience. This will include strategic staff from resilience partnerships/LRFs and voluntary/public/private sectors as well as community resilience leads from the resilience sector.

The conference will focus on the contributions of:

• government, including local resilience partnerships across the UK (LRFs, RRPs, EPGs)
• voluntary and community, including local groups, faith-based organisations, national charities
• business, including utilities, corporate programmes, and resilience advisors working in communities

Registration closes this week: £125*

*Subject to availability

Find out more about more about getting to AMBS and staying here.

In association with

Conference Organising Committee

Conference Chair – Duncan Shaw, Alliance Manchester Business School

Carney Bonner, British Red Cross
Derek Howlett, States of Guernsey
Jane Kelly, Isle of Man
Robyn Knox, VCS Emergencies Partnership
Stuart Marshall, Cleveland Emergency Planning Unit
Andrew McClelland, National Consortium for Societal Resilience [UK+]
Kevin Murphy, Channel Islands 
Northern Ireland Resilience Team
Mark Pape, Northamptonshire Resilience Forum
Jon Vangorph, VCS Emergencies Partnership
Ian Voce, Merseyside Resilience Forum
Chris Scott, West Sussex County Council
Martin Funnell, West Sussex County Council
Melvin Hartley, Eastleigh Borough Council