CRISIS PREPARATIONCrisis-Preparation Lessons from COVID-19
The early months of COVID-19 tested the UK’s highly regarded crisis management capabilities to their limit. The UK’s crisis management system was designed for, and practiced at, managing much shorter, more localized emergencies. There was no preparation for large-scale testing; no detailed planning for the economic consequences of a medical catastrophe; and no detailed plans in place for the possibility of school closures.
The early months of COVID-19 tested the UK’s highly-regarded crisis management capabilities to their limit, and there are things that should be done now to prepare better for the next emergency, according to a report from the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.
The UK’s crisis management system was designed for, and practiced at, managing much shorter, more localized emergencies. This partly explains some of the key findings of the report: there was no preparation for large-scale testing; no detailed planning for the economic consequences of a medical catastrophe; and no detailed plans in place for the possibility of school closures.
The report examines what this tells us about the broader system for managing crises, and looks in detail at what worked well or less well once the crisis was underway, drawing lessons for the future. It examines the UK alongside four other countries – Italy, Germany, Singapore and Australia – and gives 10 recommendations specific to the UK, and 10 lessons for any government.
Crisis preparation in the age of long emergencies: What COVID-19 teaches us is a 180-page report by Ciaran Martin, Hester Kan and Maximillian Fink, funded by the Wellcome Trust, with the aim of contributing to countries’ preparations for the next, undoubtedly different, crisis.
It asks: when a sustained, all-encompassing emergency happens again in the UK, whatever its cause, what capabilities would we want to see in place to enable the country to handle the crisis as effectively as possible? It aims to answer the question by looking at the first six months of the pandemic, not just in the UK but in four comparator countries – Singapore, Australia, Germany and Italy.
The report authors argue that as ‘long emergencies’ like COVID-19 become more common, a priority for the UK and other governments should be to update their crisis systems and preparation.
Lead author Ciaran Martin, Professor of Practice in the Management of Public Organizations at the Blavatnik School of Government, says: ‘The aim of our report is not to question the decisions of those in office at the time, but to look at how the mechanisms we need to respond to the next crisis can be improved.
