Planning within a crisis involves complex and undefined problems requiring fast thinking and easy-to-deliver solutions, the more usual preserve of military planners. The military has been involved in the planning and execution of responses to the Covid 19 crisis in roles both visible and invisible to the public, from rapidly building emergency medical infrastructure to monitoring and tackling the spread of disinformation about the virus.

This session will explore how and why military expertise were so vital to the Covid response in the UK and what role agile, responsive crisis planning could play in future as we get used to living with the virus, and what lessons the homelessness sector can learn from this approach.