Developed by: Durham University

The BIOPICCC toolkit is free to use and is aimed at people whose role is to support older people in health and social care. The resources are aimed at local authorities, their partner organisations, and neighbourhood and community groups who may have a stake in local level resilience planning. Specifically, the resources are designed to support users to develop plans to make health and social care services for older people (65 years of age and older) more resilient to the effects of extreme weather. This includes a strong emphasis on the infrastructure associated with healthcare.

The BIOPICC project team spoke to older people – a particularly sensitive group - in order to ascertain their particular concerns for coping with extreme weather events such as coldness or heat waves. By focussing on one vulnerable group, the BIOPICC toolkit can help those who care for older people to target their resources to those who might most need them and so support equality in adaptation. Also, the case studies and guidance emphasise understanding the individual needs and requirements of older people, which can be done by giving them voice and power in how services can be better provided to them to improve resilience. This engagement role of the toolkit is a use which is actively promoted by the development team.            

The project also involved modelling the future distributions of older people which can help in the consideration of inter-generational justice. Practitioner summaries of some of the features of the project can be found here.