Well-adapted public services system

Risk to the system from climate change: heat, flooding, and wildfire impact the public services system.

Objectives

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Services operate safely during extreme weather, at levels at least as good, if not better than, today.

Proposed target: by 2050, internal temperatures of learning environments should remain between 16°C–25°C and school sites should be at low risk (less than 1% chance for any given year) of flooding.
Proposed target: by 2050, internal temperatures of prison and justice facilities should remain between 16°C–26°C and sites should be at low risk (less than 1% chance for any given year) of flooding.

Emergency services effectively anticipate, prepare for, and manage adverse weather-related impacts.

Proposed target: by 2030, all emergency services and incident responders should be equipped and resourced to meet emergency services’ target response times under all weather events.

Actions

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Actions in the services subsystem

Buildings and estates: outdoor shading, passive and active cooling and ventilation, surface water flood measures, and protection of key assets like generators.

Outdoor shading: permanent structures such as trees, canopies, and temporary awnings provide shade and increase outdoor comfort in sites such as school playgrounds or outside school gates. Grounds shade sails were the most frequently recommended measure across Climate Action Plans in 60 schools in London. Pergolas and sail shades are relatively low unit cost (£1,900–£5,500 in 2025 prices) and effective for providing shade and cover.
Passive cooling and ventilation: passive cooling strategies, such as indoor shading from blinds, shutters, insulation alongside ventilation can help to reduce indoor temperatures.
Active cooling: during intense and prolonged heatwaves, or in certain types of buildings or circumstances, active cooling such as air conditioning may be necessary to reduce indoor temperatures to comfortable levels. This is particularly the case in urban areas in South East England.
Surface water flood alleviation: for example, installing SuDS, such as rain gardens, permeable paving, water storage, and landscaping.
Asset adaptation: it may be cost-effective to deploy measures specifically to prevent key assets, such as generators, computers, and vehicles, from being impacted by climate events. Measures will depend on the hazard and the asset but could include locating key infrastructure off the ground floor, ensuring vehicle spaces (such as for transporting pupils) are elevated from flood risk and shaded, and that the vehicles have appropriate air conditioning.

Operations: rostering and timetabling, flexible capacity with back-up facilities, behaviour change, and staff training.

Rostering and timetabling: for example, cross-training staff or having on-call staff to cover for those unable to attend due to climate-related travel or health issues can improve resilience. Adjusting staff shifts to avoid peak heat hours, and scheduling maintenance and outdoor activities in cooler parts of the day can also help.
Flexible capacity: in the event of extreme weather, it is important that public service operations can be flexible but also recover quickly. For example, back-up facilities for catering and exercise provision in prisons. In terms of the occupational health of staff, services should provide health support, hydration stations, cool areas, ensuring appropriate breaks are taken, adapting uniforms where appropriate, and providing support for safe travel during extreme weather.
Behaviour change and staff training: building the understanding of key staff of climate change-related risks and how to prevent them can reduce disruption beyond physical adaptations. This could include adverse weather guidance on protocols for managing service delivery, and staff and user safety.

Actions in the emergency services subsystem

Buildings and equipment: resilient design or retrofit of buildings and equipment, such as with raised floors, waterproofing, and improved insulation.

Building and asset measures: these include constructing or retrofitting fire stations, ambulance depots, and police facilities to withstand flooding, extreme heat, and storm damage, for example, via raised floors, flood barriers, and heat-reflective roofing; relocating or waterproofing storage areas for critical equipment and vehicles in flood prone areas; air conditioning vehicles; improving insulation and ventilation systems to maintain safe indoor temperatures for staff during heatwaves; and ensuring more wildfire trucks and protective equipment are available.

These adaptation actions are connected with adaptation in the built environment and communities system and in the land system.

Capability: emergency response protocols, scenario testing, staff training, flexible staffing, surveillance and early warning systems, and community behaviour.

Operational measures: organisational responses can be strengthened through revised emergency response protocols, enhanced staff training and wellbeing support, flexible staffing models, and scenario-based exercises.
Surveillance and early warning systems: high resolution weather forecasts already support emergency services with timely alerts, such as via the Met Office National Severe Weather Warning Service and UK Health Security Agency’s heat-health alerts. However, improving how and where alerts and warnings are issued could allow emergency services and the public to better anticipate when and where impacts are likely to occur.
Community behaviour measures: these include evacuation plans, regular public drills, and simulations, check-in systems for vulnerable residents, and first aid and basic response training. Evidence on the cost and overall benefits of these measures is limited, as they can vary by scale and how they are implemented.

These adaptation actions are connected with adaptation in the health system.

Enablers

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Resources: for upgrades to buildings and estates, and for capacity building and emergency services operations.

Delivering adaptation measures in public services requires investment in both capital and operational capacity, which can often be aligned to existing asset replacement cycles.

Adaptation actions such as retrofitting schools and prisons depend on both up-front capital funding and long-term revenue budgets for maintenance.
Services also need sufficient system capacity and flexibility to continue to operate under prolonged and intensified weather events. It is essential that services have enough personnel to operate and respond effectively to current and future weather events.
Understanding what resources are required will take planning, potentially using existing procurement cycles to upgrade and update equipment. This could include, for example, new training and upskilling to address emerging risks, and ensuring that equipment, such as ambulances, fire trucks, and personal protective equipment, are climate resilient.

Clear plans, roles, and responsibilities: for effective decision-making and allocation of resources.

Clearly defined roles enable more effective decision-making, better communication, and more efficient allocation of resources. In England, the fire and rescue service responds to floods but has no statutory duty to do so, unlike the rest of the UK. This makes it harder to ensure consistent and safe resourcing for flood incidents.

Data and monitoring processes: for forecasting weather events to direct emergency response and alerts.

Better data and forecasting improve preparedness and response capabilities. For example, regional flood alerts give staff and building occupants time to prepare and maintain capacity, reducing damage and disruption. Taking action ahead of a flood can cut damages by around 40%, lowering the risk of later mental health impacts.

Engagement, awareness, and support: for preparing the households and public service providers to respond to extreme weather events, weather alerts, and early warnings.

Households and public service providers need to know what to do in an extreme weather event and in response to alerts and early warnings, including emerging risks such as wildfires. The CCC’s citizens’ panel highlighted a strong need for timely, clear, and actionable weather warnings and alerts.

Policies

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Planning policy and building regulations: that ensure public buildings and estates are suitable for future climate conditions, and that indoor conditions are safe.

Building regulations and standards are the main levers for ensuring that new public buildings are designed and built resilient. Clear design standards for climate resilience of public buildings and assets should be in place for new and existing assets. Policies must also define how thresholds for weather warnings and alerts are set, and how they are communicated to the public. That includes managing frequency to avoid response fatigue and maintain effectiveness over time.

Public provision: for infrastructure upgrades, new public estates, and building emergency response capabilities.

Building upgrades, new public estates, and emergency response capabilities will require public funding:

Dedicated, multi-year capital funding for retrofitting cooling and flood resilience measures will be needed. Aligning adaptation with ongoing maintenance and with climate change mitigation planning would minimise disruption and costs and maximise co-benefits with emissions reduction. Grants or incentives will be needed for private owner prisons to undertake overheating and flood resilience retrofits.
Emergency response services should be resourced to ensure capabilities are fit for the current and future climate. The 2022 heatwaves revealed gaps in emergency preparedness for extreme heat and wildfires, particularly due to limited response capacity and inadequate equipment.
Increased resources are needed for meteorological infrastructure, digital systems, and training for local authorities and community-based workers in responding to weather warnings and alerts.

Reporting requirements: for services to conduct risk assessments and develop adaptation plans.

This is particularly important for climate risks that span different departments and for emerging risks such as wildfires, for which cross-government coordination is lacking. There should be a statutory duty for fire and rescue services in England to respond to flooding, supported by appropriate funding and resources. Climate risk and adaptation action reporting for public bodies across all nations should be mandated, alongside existing estates strategies and procurement cycles. Incorporating climate-related risks into annual reports supports accountability and transparency on how these risks are being managed.

UK-wide resilience frameworks and accessible climate information: for robust guidelines and targets on resilience.

With more actionable information, and clear operational guidance, agencies can pre-position staff, equipment, and supplies in high-risk areas, reducing response times and increasing overall resilience. Clearer operational guidance will help organisations move from reactive to proactive planning. This includes enhanced forecasting and weather alerts delivered through appropriate channels for different response teams and populations.