Preparing for Winter: How REACT Gets Ready for Increased Demand

As winter approaches, the risk of severe weather brings increased pressure on communities and the organisations supporting them. From flooding and freezing temperatures to multiple incidents happening at once, being ready to respond takes careful planning, trained people and strong local partnerships.

For REACT, preparing for winter is about more than being ready to deploy. It's about making sure our responders have the skills, equipment and support they need, and that we can work effectively alongside local authorities and other organisations when communities need assistance.

Much of this work happens behind the scenes, long before an emergency makes the headlines.

Preparing before the weather turns

Winter can bring a range of challenges, sometimes simultaneously. Flooding can affect homes, infrastructure and access to essential services, while prolonged periods of freezing weather can put people already experiencing hardship at greater risk.

Our preparations focus on three essentials: trained responders, reliable equipment and clear procedures for activating a response.

Flood training is an important part of this work, giving responders opportunities to develop and practise the skills needed to operate safely and effectively in challenging conditions.

Alongside training, equipment checks help identify maintenance and replacement needs before an incident occurs. From a responder's perspective, knowing that equipment is ready and reliable is fundamental to working safely.

We also review our activation procedures to ensure requests for assistance can be managed effectively, responsibilities are understood and responders receive clear direction.

When severe weather develops quickly, or several areas need support at once, these preparations can make a significant difference.

Building partnerships before they're needed

When severe weather strikes, effective response depends on more than the capabilities of individual organisations. It depends on how well those organisations can work together.

Across the UK, emergency services, local authorities, voluntary organisations and community groups bring different skills, resources and local knowledge to the response. Connecting that capability before an emergency is essential.

As REACT explored in our recent article, UK Resilience is a Team Sport, there is already considerable expertise and capacity within the voluntary and community sector. The challenge is ensuring it is connected, coordinated and able to support existing response arrangements when needed.

That's why building relationships is an important part of REACT's winter preparations.

Through our ongoing UK transition, we are strengthening connections with Local Resilience Forums, emergency services, local authorities and other regional partners. These conversations help build mutual understanding of local risks, the support REACT can offer and how our trained volunteers can work alongside others during an incident.

Vicci Fabris, REACT's UK Lead, explains why this matters:

“An emergency shouldn't be the first time we're having conversations about where REACT fits into the response. Building relationships with councils, Local Resilience Forums and other partners beforehand helps us understand local plans, identify where our capabilities can add value and agree how our support can be activated.

“For us, winter readiness means turning those plans into practical capability: trained responders, checked equipment and clear responsibilities, ready to support local services when demand increases.”

By developing these relationships in advance, we can help ensure that when communities need support, the focus is on delivering an effective, coordinated response rather than establishing relationships for the first time.

Supporting people during severe cold

Not every winter response involves flooding or widespread disruption. Periods of severe cold can be particularly dangerous for people sleeping outside. When local councils activate the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP), additional support may be needed to help people access somewhere safe.

REACT can assist councils with opening, running and maintaining support centres, providing practical capacity to local services working to protect vulnerable people during severe weather.

This is an important example of how trained volunteers can work alongside statutory services, providing additional support when demand increases.

Building capacity for greater demand

Preparing for winter also means considering what happens when a response becomes larger, lasts longer or involves several locations.

Having trained responders available is only one part of the picture. Equipment, coordination, oversight and ongoing operational support must also be able to meet the demands of a sustained response.

As part of our UK transition, REACT is working to strengthen regional capacity while maintaining the coordination and support needed to deploy safely and effectively. The aim is to build a response capability that is both locally connected and able to respond to changing demands.

Ready when communities need us

Training sessions, equipment checks, planning meetings and conversations with partners rarely attract the attention that an emergency deployment does. But they are essential to every effective response.

For REACT, winter preparation is a continuous process of strengthening our people, our capabilities and our relationships with those we work alongside.

Because when severe weather strikes, communities need organisations that are not only willing to help, but ready to do so. Find out more about REACT's work across the UK and how you can support our Responders at www.re-act.org.uk.


Main image: Responders regularly take part in exercises that simulate real life crises. Credit John Goodman,  June 2026.