“My hearing would not stop me from helping my neighbours in crisis; we want to be active players, not just people who need to be saved.” This is what an audience member of the European Day of People with Disabilities (EDPD) 2025 event highlighted during the ‘Preparedness and Crisis Management Inclusive of Persons with Disabilities’ panel discussion, when the panel was discussing the role people with disabilities can play during a crisis. 

Ruslan Topchan, a veteran of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and panellist during the EDPD, also underscored that inclusiveness should not be a privilege but a necessary factor to help save lives.  

This message is integral to the European Commission’s new Preparedness Union Strategy, which is developing inclusive guidelines for people with disabilities and first responders, as well as e-training modules and guidance for EU Member States. The guidelines are set to be published by the end of 2026. 

That said, as Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, Hans Das, pointed out, ensuring inclusiveness during crisis situations is still a work in progress, with inclusive early warning systems and risk communications requiring further improvement.  

With the focus usually placed on humanitarian aid, or other emergency services, crisis preparedness remains an underexplored area in the social policy field. For this reason, the European Social Network (ESN), after four years of working on transforming social services to make them more resilient to crisis, has published the first-ever European Crisis Management Framework for Social Services.  

Providing a comprehensive framework for effective crisis response 

National, regional, and even local authorities often have their own emergency preparedness plans or protocols for when a crisis arises. However, these don’t necessarily address the needs of the most vulnerable, nor consider input from social services providers, who are key players in long term recovery. This is where ESN’s new framework comes in. 

In a context of increasing environmental, digital, social, and economic crises that may disrupt essential social services, vulnerable populations are at greater risk. Therefore, the need for robust crisis management frameworks is more urgent than ever. 

The new Crisis Management Framework is the product of the 2025 annual meeting of ESN‘s Social Services Transformation and Resilience Working Group, which brought together social services directors and workers from across Europe. It offers a Crisis Management Framework that helps guarantee the sector will be supported to address future crises in the short-, medium-, or long-term. It recognises the need for an approach that addresses crises before, during, and after they take place. To do this, the framework considered the main challenges faced by social services in crisis situations and established five core components with key proposals within each. 

These five key components are:  

• Leadership and workforce training 

• Technology and information systems 

• Organisational agility and interagency cooperation 

• Systematic risk and threat assessment 

• Transparency and communication 

With the development of this framework, ESN is helping pave the way for more effective crisis preparedness, ensuring that social services are more resilient to crisis, and making sure no one is left behind. 

Advancing social services’ role in crisis preparedness and emergency response: ESN’s Annual Seminar 2026 

Building on its work on preparedness, ESN’s upcoming 2026 Annual Seminar will further explore the different roles social services can play in emergency situations and how they can be better prepared to address future emergencies.