ARC GM | Projects

This research is led by Christine Camacho as part of her PhD Fellowship. For more information about Christine, please check our PhD Fellowships page.

What are we trying to do?

The main goal of this research is to create and use a Community Resilience Index (CRI) for England. This index is designed to measure how strong and adaptable communities are when facing challenges, such as economic hardships or natural disasters.

Why is this important?

Currently, there is no agreed method of measuring community resilience in England. Understanding and measuring community resilience helps ensure that communities are better prepared to handle challenges, whether through economic hardships, natural disasters, or public health crises. Developing a standardised method for measuring resilience is crucial for identifying which areas need the most support and ensuring that resources and policies are directed where they are most needed.

This research contributes to creating stronger, more adaptable communities across England, ultimately supporting the UK Government's broader goals of reducing inequalities and improving the quality of life for everyone, no matter where they live.

How are we doing it?

1 Understanding how community resilience is measured

This PhD study began with a review of the existing literature around measuring community resilience. A framework called the Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) was identified, which was the most well-used internationally. A systematic review was then carried out, which identified 32 studies that had used the BRIC method to measure community resilience. None of these studies had measured community resilience in the UK.

2 Linking resilience to economics and policy

We explored how economically resilient communities are and how funds are distributed to them. This part highlights how a resilience index can play a practical role in shaping policies, such as those in the government's "Levelling Up" agenda aimed at reducing regional inequalities.

3 Investigating ‘Deaths of Despair’

We investigated deaths caused by drugs, alcohol, and suicide in England - collectively termed Deaths of Despair. These deaths often occur in communities facing economic hardships and weakened social bonds. This connection emphasises why building and measuring community resilience is vital for both social well-being and health outcomes.

4 Developing and Applying the Community Resilience Index

The last part of this work is developing a Community Resilience Index (CRI) for England and exploring how it could be used. The development of the CRI was informed by the systematic review.

Findings

1 Understanding how community resilience is measured

To measure how resilient a community is, researchers often use something called composite indices, which combine different factors into one overall score. The Baseline Resilience Index for Communities (BRIC) is one of the most widely used methods for this.

A review was conducted to see how the BRIC model has been used across different places, types of communities, and kinds of challenges. The review looked at 32 studies and found that there were differences in how the BRIC model was applied, such as in the types of factors included and how communities were defined.

The quality of these studies was also assessed, with most studies scoring around 60% in terms of following best practices for creating composite indices. While the BRIC model has been adapted in different ways depending on local needs, the review suggests that improving how these indices are constructed could make them more useful for disaster planning and response.

The full paper has been published in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction and is available below.

2 Linking resilience to economics and policy

The UK Government launched a Community Renewal Fund (CRF) in 2021. The fund is part of the UK Government’s ‘Levelling Up’ agenda to address place-based inequalities. The CRF, which was a cornerstone of the government’s ‘Levelling Up’ agenda, was established to address regional inequalities through investment in place-based initiatives.

However, the findings of our work suggest that the current method for CRF allocation runs the risk of widening existing inequalities rather than ‘levelling up’.

Using an economic resilience index for England to test whether the fund had been allocated according to need, we found:

Nationally, there was no significant correlation between regional economic resilience and funding allocations.
All regions in the North of England received less than their expected share of the flagship ‘levelling up’ fund.
The least resilient region in England – the North East – received £13.4 million less.
By contrast, the South West was awarded £9.9 million more than their expected share.

The full paper has been published in Regional Studies, Regional Science and is available below.

3 Investigating ‘Deaths of Despair’

Regarding our analysis around Deaths of Despair, which is the first study to explore geographical patterning and contributing causes of these kinds of deaths in England, we found that people living in the North of England and in coastal areas are more likely to die from Deaths of Despair.

The analysis shows that between 2019 and 2021, 46,200 people lost their lives due to Deaths of Despair in England – the equivalent of 42 people every day. However, in the North East of England, more than twice as many people lost their lives due to Deaths of Despair compared to London.

We also found that:

On average, 14.8 per 100,000 more people die from Deaths of Despair in the North compared to the rest of England.
Even after accounting for multiple social and economic factors, living in the North of England was associated with a 5.8 per 100,000 increase in Deaths of Despair rate.
More than twice as many people died from Deaths of Despair in the North East of England than they did in London (54.7 per 100,000 and 25.1 per 100,000 respectively).
The highest rate of Deaths of Despair in England (at local authority level) is in Blackpool – almost 2.5 times the national average.
Three areas in England, all in the North, experienced more than double the average Deaths of Despair – Blackpool (83.8 in 100,000 deaths), Middlesbrough (71.6 per 100,000 deaths) and Hartlepool (70.5 per 100,000 deaths).
Alcohol-specific deaths made up almost half of Deaths of Despair in England, accounting for 44.1% of all such deaths.
Deaths of Despair accounted for 2.9% of all deaths in England.
Deaths of Despair were highest among people aged 45-54 (55 per 100,000).
Deaths of Despair accounted for 2 in 5 deaths in people aged 25-29 (41.1% of all deaths).
Coastal local authorities had a significantly higher average Deaths of Despair rate than inland local authorities (41.6 per 100,000 compared to 31.5 per 100,000).

The full paper has been published in Social Science and Medicine and is available below.

4 Developing and Applying the Community Resilience Index

The Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) framework was adapted for use in England, creating a Community Resilience Index (CRI). A systematic review helped to decide which indicators would be included and how they would be weighted. A total of 44 indicators were included in the CRI, across 5 domains, and these were used to quantify how resilient local authorities are in England.

The CRI could be used to guide resilience-building efforts by policymakers, at national, regional, and local levels.

Below are the main findings when the CRI was applied to English local authorities (higher scores suggest higher levels of community resilience):

The mean score for local authorities in England was 83.1, with scores ranging from 53.3 in Tendring (East of England) to 108.9 in Elmbridge (South East England).
London and the South East scored highest using the CRI.
The North had lower CRI scores than the Midlands and South.
Coastal and rural areas showed lower resilience scores than average.

Local authority scores are available in this interactive webtool.

The full paper has been published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and is available below.

Downloadable resources

More information

Christine Camacho

PhD Fellow & Public Health Consultant
christine.camacho@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

PhD Study: Developing a Community Resilience Index for England: Methodology, Application, and Policy Implications