Developing a measure for community resilience across England to inform policy makers decisions enabling support to be targeted to communities most in need

Narrative

Community resilience is a marker of how well a place can cope with, and recover from, events like natural disasters, health emergencies, or economic crises. It is dependent on the population living in an area and the resources they have such as infrastructure, for example housing and transport links to key services.

Building community resilience has become a goal for policymakers, especially in response to natural disasters and after Covid-19. Our research has developed a new measure, the Community Resilience Index (CRI). This tool can be policymakers used to measure resilience and target support where it is most needed.

Building community resilience, by ensuring that everyone has access to resources and support, could also help reduce health inequalities.

To create the CRI, 44 indicators were grouped into five sub-indices, each representing a different aspect of community resilience. The CRI is the first evidence-based tool designed for this purpose, providing a framework for assessing resilience across different areas and providing policymakers with a tool make informed decisions on resource allocation and evaluate the impact of interventions designed to build community resilience.

Steve Race, MP for Exeter and Chair of the South West APPG said "The CRI helps MPs and others to better understand what our resilience currently looks like, which enables us to better understand how to improve it.”

Tan Dhesi, MP for Slough and Chair of the South East APPG said "I welcome this research from The University of Manchester, introducing the first measure of community resilience across England." He confirmed “Tools like the Community Resilience Index are useful for policymakers, including those of us at the South East APPG, to inform our efforts to make the region a better place to live, work, and do business."

Category of impact	Health and wellbeing, Policy, Awareness and understanding
Impact level	Benefit