Adaptation Resources for the NHS

Climate change has serious consequences for both public health and effective delivery of healthcare. The risks and potential consequences are recognised in the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (UKCCRA3), summarised in the health and social care briefing produced in 2021. Understanding, anticipating, and adapting to these new challenges is essential to developing a more climate-resilient NHS.

Sustainability West Midlands have been involved in a range of projects to support the NHS in adapting to the impacts of climate change. In the usual spirit of providing free and open-source materials that are useful beyond the lifespan of the project, many of these are available to download and use. To ensure the legacy of these projects, many of the resources are all available on the weadapt website, a collaborative platform for adaptation. You can also download the resources from this page and read about each project in more detail through the links below.

Adapt to Survive

Sustainability West Midlands collaborated with our local Environment Agency team in 2023 to produce a suite of resources to start Trusts on their adaptation journey, including a toolkit that takes them through a step by step process to enable effective adaptation in their Trust, ICB or ICS.

This series of resources, collectively known as ‘Adapt to Survive,’ provides:

  • An Excel-based toolkit to take Trusts through a process to produce an adaptation plan, including how to assess risks, identify impacts and adaptation solutions.
  • A guidance document taking users through the above tool and providing further guidance and resources, and how adaptation links with existing NHS healthcare and emergency planning priorities.
  • Video tutorials explaining how to use the toolkit.
  • A compendium of case studies showing what adaptation good practice looks like in NHS Trusts, in order to catalyse action in other Trusts.
  • An event, ran in September 2023, that brought together nearly 80 individuals from Trusts, ICSs and ICBs from the across the UK to learn more about climate change adaptation.

Visit the full Adapt to Survive page for the video tutorials and a recording of a presentation and walkthrough of the project.

Developing adaptation capability of the NHS – a pilot

In 2024, NHSE North West, NHSE North East & Yorkshire, and NHS Greater Manchester (GM) teamed up with two independent organisations with expertise in public sector adaptation, Sniffer and Sustainability West Midlands, for a project that developed multiple resources, piloted two different training courses, consulted and engaged staff across multiple northern NHS organisations, and started building a business case for wider climate change adaptation in the NHS. Below are the resources developed in this project, and click here for a case study of the project overall.

A webinar was held on 30 July 2024 to share the activities, resources, and learnings from the project. Watch a recording of this webinar here:

Interested in the Becoming Climate Resilient Training or the Empowering Leaders Training for your organisation? Want to know more about how SWM or Sniffer may be able to support you with adaptation?

Visit our adaptation consultancy page or contact our adaptation lead alan.carr@swm.org.uk.

Other SWM work with the NHS

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