The Emergencies Partnership was created in 2018, following the experience of the Grenfell Tower fire, 2017 terror attacks, and rural flooding across the country.

The partnership's purpose is to build greater national resilience and a better experience for people impacted by emergencies, by making best use of resources across the voluntary and community sector.

The pandemic presented an entirely new challenge for several reasons – its scale, the speed of its onset, and the adoption of unprecedented restrictions on movement at short notice. There were urgent needs and there were also huge numbers of people who wanted to help. The partnership's goal was to enable the voluntary sector to connect the two. This impact report shows the immediate actions the partnership took and where that activity is now.

The report also covers the learnings from the last year and how they can be used to develop and improve the response for future emergencies, with the ambition to continue to build connections with local and national partners and to build community resilience to whatever may happen next.

The Emergencies Partnership's research and work with partners has shown that there remain wide-ranging and serious concerns for our partners and the wider sector. Sector capacity has been stretched to its limit but public need is likely to continue to increase and diversify as the pandemic’s long-term impacts become clearer. The partnership remain concerned about funding shortfalls and the long-term sustainability of many sector organisations.

Read the Impact Report 2020-21.