Community and Service Resilience

Durham University’s Built Infrastructure for Older People’s Care in Conditions of Climate Change (BIOPICCC) was a 3-year research project which worked closely with local authorities to develop strategies to ensure infrastructures and systems supporting health and social care for older people are resilient to the harmful impacts of climate change, particularly extreme or severe weather events.  Though the original research focused on older people’s care, it has proven relevant to a wider range of services and community resilience more generally.  Catherine conducted interviews with participants who were involved in the original research or subsequently made use of the BIOPICCC toolkit to examine past and present impact and to consider the effects of changing political priorities, public spending cuts and health and social care restructuring.  With the Durham team and Climate UK, she then facilitated a peer-to-peer workshop looking at what helps take effective action and what gets in the way.  This work is cited in guidance such as the Department of Health’s Cold Weather Plan.

Funded by Durham University and the EPSRC via the ARCC Network.

Read the report on the impact of the BIOPICCC toolkit.

Read Catherine’s blog for LGiU describing her work to appraise the impact of the research