Cold weather communications toolkit 2024/25

On 1st November, the Cold-Health Alerting system jointly provided by UKHSA and Met Office will go live. As with previous years, the UKHSA are advising stakeholders to sign up to Weather-Health Alerts which are distributed via email. If you would like to receive the alerts, please register and share the link with anyone you feel should be receiving them. The alerts are cascaded across the health system, so organisations can undertake their own cascade as part of their own adverse weather action plans. During alerts, UKHSA will undertake communications at the regional and/or national level to highlight the forecast and the potential impacts on public health.

To support stakeholders communicate cold weather messaging this winter, the UKHSA have updated their cold weather communications toolkit for 2024/25. The communication material in this toolkit relates specifically to cold weather and is intended to provide basic health information that can be communicated before and during cold spells, so the right messages reach the right people at the right time. The content included in this toolkit can be used to target both public and professional audiences. 

Ahead of the alerting system going live, the UKHSA recommend using messaging included in the toolkit on how best to prepare for cold weather. They ask that cold weather messaging is not used until alerts are issued. 

You can read more about the Weather-Health Alerting system and the Adverse Weather and Health Plan (AWHP) on gov.uk.

For more information, contact the External Affairs Team at the UK Health Security Agency - www.gov.uk/ukhsa