Choose a specialist to help develop or audit your Climate Adaptation Plan

What is a Climate Adaptation Plan?

A Climate Adaptation Plan is a strategic, living document that sets out how a setting will mitigate and manage the potential impacts of any climate hazards - such as heat stress, extreme cold and flooding - to increase its resilience to climate change. The plan is used to record and monitor progress against the actions set out in it.

The plan is informed by the results of your Climate Risk Assessment, and should address both the immediate and long-term vulnerabilities of your setting’s physical assets, infrastructure and operations. It should also ensure the wellbeing of learners and staff.

Why use a specialist?

Your setting can choose to create a Climate Adaptation Plan on your own, or with a specialist to support its development. Engaging a specialist will ensure it is feasible, robust and aligned with best practice to ensure the actions you want to take are appropriate and effective in increasing your setting’s climate resilience.

Once you have created your Climate Adaptation Plan, the next step is to verify its effectiveness. A specialist audit can be helpful to ensure it is feasible, robust, and aligned with best practices and regulatory standards.

If you produce a Climate Adaptation Plan on your own, engaging a specialist to audit it will ensure that you have fully identified any climate hazards and potential impacts that may have been missed in the initial planning. It will also ensure that you have selected the most effective actions to take to increase your setting’s resilience.

Specialists can provide recommendations specifically suited to your setting’s environment, addressing unique needs related to learner safety, building use, and resource management. Where building or infrastructure interventions such as retrofit are required, they can ensure your plan aligns with local and national environmental regulations, helping avoid potential compliance issues.

Engaging a specialist as part of your process ensures:

Expertise: specialists bring a deep understanding of climate risks and adaptation strategies, ensuring a thorough assessment of all aspects of your plan. A specialist can independently verify that all risks have been thoroughly identified and accurately prioritised.

Impartial analysis: An external specialist provides an unbiased perspective, identifying gaps and improvements without internal biases while recognising subtle or complex risks that may have been missed in the initial planning.

Knowledge of standards and regulations specialists stay up to date with evolving climate-related regulations and best practices, and can ensure compliance where required.

Organisations that can provide this service

Environmental consultancies: These firms specialise in assessing climate risks and developing strategies to mitigate or adapt to climate impacts. They bring expertise in risk assessments and resilience planning that can be tailored to education settings.

If your focus is on physical measures to improve climate resilience (such as drainage, heating or building fabric upgrades) it can be helpful to engage with built environment consultancies that can identify the most impactful measures.

Government agencies: Local government agencies can recommend reputable third-party providers. They can also provide guidance on local climate change planning and policy that you may need to consider in your plan.

Environmental charities: There are a number of non-profit organisations that provide climate adaptation assessment services.

Educational sector specialists: Organisations that specialise in the education sector may offer advice and support to audit your plan, as well as training and CPD for staff.

What to consider when choosing a specialist

When selecting a professional service provider, settings should consider the following criteria.

Experience with educational settings: Ensure the specialist is familiar with the education sector and understands how climate hazards impact settings’ operations, infrastructure and people.

Expertise and qualifications: There are not currently any professional bodies with the sole purpose of providing accreditation services on the topic of climate change, adaptation and resilience.

However, it can be helpful to check whether the organisation has up to date environmental certifications, such as ISO 14090 and 14091, which ensure organisations understand climate risks and develop effective adaptation responses.

Methodology, approach and outcomes: Providers who use evidence-based, transparent, and collaborative approaches will likely deliver more actionable insights. Understanding their process from the start will help you determine what information you will need to provide and when, the format it is required in, any time required on site, and what the final output will contain.

References and reputation: Seeking feedback from other settings that have used the provider’s services can be helpful to ensure they have a good reputation. You can also request testimonials or previous examples of work to ensure its quality.

What to expect from the specialist

The final output from your specialist will depend on whether they supported the development of your Climate Adaptation Plan, or just audited it.

For settings that have engaged a provider to support development of their plan, the final output may include:

an introduction setting out the scope of the work
the methodology for completing the Climate Risk Assessment
a completed Climate Risk Assessment
a breakdown of the key risks and findings
a set of recommended mitigating actions or measures that can be taken
a comprehensive Climate Adaptation Plan which includes any actions or measures your setting has chosen to progress with, and a recommended or agreed timeline for completion

For settings that have engaged a provider to audit their plan, the final output may include:

an introduction setting out the scope of the audit
the methodology for completing the audit
a breakdown of the audit’s findings
an evaluation of current measures reviewing the effectiveness of existing adaptation actions
a set of targeted recommendations to adjust or enhance the Climate Adaptation Plan, which may include recommendations related to high impact actions or priorities, data collection, risk identification, and plan development processes
a conclusion that includes key focus areas and any next steps