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Choose a skill you can practise this week
Start with a task that would help in ordinary life as well as during a disruption. Practise while the lights are on, the phone is charged and you have time to check instructions. A useful first session ends with something you can repeat.
- Learn first aid: choose training suited to the people you may help and the level of practice you need.
- Use a paper map and compass: begin on a familiar local route and learn to relate landmarks to the map.
- Operate your radio and plan communications: tune it, find the instructions and agree how household members would exchange messages.
- Grow food in a small space: try a manageable container and learn its watering, light and harvesting needs.
- Choose safer food-preservation methods: work from a tested method and the equipment it specifies.
- Keep essential records available offline: practise finding a copy when internet access is switched off.
Make practice small and observable
Instead of "learn navigation", choose "identify our position on a paper map at three familiar junctions". Instead of "sort the radio", choose "find a useful station and write down how to tune it". These tasks show whether the equipment and instructions work for you.
Repeat the task after a few days. Ask another household member to follow your written steps without prompting. If they get stuck, improve the instructions or choose a simpler arrangement. Do not create a real outage or interfere with medical equipment, alarms or essential services to practise.
Know where instruction matters
Reading can help you choose training, but first aid needs suitable teaching and practice. Use the British Red Cross first-aid learning resources to explore the subject, then check course content and assessment with the provider.
Food preservation, water treatment and radio transmission each have specific limits. Follow the tested recipe, product instructions or applicable service rules described in the relevant guide. A successful-looking jar, clear water or a radio that switches on does not prove it is safe or lawful to use in every way.
The safe water on UK walks guide explains why the source and the treatment method both matter. Start with a suitable drinking-water supply for practice rather than experimenting with unknown contamination.
Put the skill into the household plan
Write down where maps, manuals, contact details and document copies are kept. Make the information usable by someone other than the person who arranged it. Use the household plan to record contacts and practical arrangements.
At your six-month review, repeat one short task: tune the radio, find a document or walk through the contact plan. Replace an arrangement if the household can no longer use it comfortably.