The priorities being agreed between councils, local partners and central government in local area agreements point to the fact that influencing people’s behaviour is an increasingly important aspect of local council’s aspirations.

The “top 20” priorities include: under 18 conception; childhood obesity; smoking; re-offending; participation in sport. The IDeA has commissioned the Tavistock Institute to understand how they can best support partnerships to influence behaviour and achieve these outcomes.

Context

The objective of the work is to inform the IDeA, local authorities and wider stakeholders on how best to support Local Strategic Partnerships in their delivery of behaviour changing initiatives at the local level. Some questions for the project include, the contribution that partnership working can make to this. Does it help or hinder? What are the conditions necessary to support the development and implementation of initiatives? What key characteristics and lessons can be learned from current practice? Are there any conceptual frameworks that Authorities are using?

Methodology

A workshop was hosted by the IDeA and the Tavistock Institute on Tuesday December 16th 2008. The aim of the workshop to ask and answer some of the questions above and develop key lessons and characteristics for partnerships and a chance to see areas of best practice and discuss areas for improvement. The findings from the workshop will contribute to a think piece written by the Tavistock Institute and IDeA to be published later in 2009.