Transcript Local alcohol strategies: delivery and management

Rachel Herring, Middlesex University
AERC Alcohol Academy Launch Event
9th June 2009
Brief background
 Devolution of the responsibility to local authorities for
action to address alcohol-related harm and help
achieve national targets.
 Use of partnerships as a mechanism for developing
and implementing local alcohol policies e.g. CDRPs,
DA(A)Ts, PCTs, LSPs (and LAAs).
 GORs have a supporting role.
 Alcohol as a cross cutting issue – health, criminal
justice, community safety, commerce.
What is partnership?
“An agreement between two or more independent
bodies to work collectively to achieve an objective”
(Audit Commission , 1998, 2005)
Vary in size, service area, membership and function:
 Statutory e.g. CDRP and voluntary e.g. LSP
 Strategic/operational
 Micro-partnerships
 Informal (‘organic) rather than formal (invented)?
Why work in partnership?
Multi-component approach
 Strategic framework with a theoretical basis for action
 The identification of problems defined at local levels
 Programme of co-ordinated projects based on a integrative programme
design where singular interventions run in combination with each
other and/or are sequenced together over time
 Identification, mobilisation and coordination of agencies, stakeholders
and local communities
 Defined aims, objectives, indicators & measures of effectiveness for the
programme as a whole (individual projects will also have specified
aims, objectives and outcome measures).
 Evaluation as an integral part of the programme
Source: Thom and Bayley (2007)
Key issues
 Policy tensions
 Transference
 Alcohol-focused or embedded approaches
 Community mobilisation
 Institutionalising change (sustainability)
Evaluation of the LSPs: governance
issues
Considerable differences in the extent to which LSPs
had been able to establish robust and sustainable
governance arrangements
 previous history of partnership working
 different kinds of local authority areas
 leadership, membership, need for a clear
understanding of the role and purpose of the
partnership
 engagement of partners and stakeholders
Evaluation of LSPs: delivery issues
 Prime drivers of activity were national policies
 Wide range of activity
 Clear relationship between the ‘maturity’ of the LSP and
the amount of progress made
 Mainstreaming: ‘strategic’ and ‘initiative’:
• LA, police and health organisations are key players
• Area based initiatives e.g. NRF provide a stimulus & learning
tool
• Importance of councillors, senior officers & middle
management
• ‘Locality’ planning good place for main programme reshaping
The Virtuous Circle (Geddes, 2006)
The Vicious Circle (Geddes, 2006)
Key factors
 Individuals
 Champions
 Achieving ‘buy-in’ at all levels
 Cultures
 Time pressures
 Complexity of policy context
 Sustainability
Addressing alcohol-related harm:
lessons from other fields
 Long term commitment
 Ownership of the problem
 Framing the problem
 Understanding the target
 Planning
 Positive messages
 Multiple approaches
 Competition
 Research
Reading
 Audit Commission (2005) Governing partnerships. Bridging the
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accountability gap. London: Audit Commission.
Audit Commission (2009) Working Better together? Managing local
strategic partnerships. London: Audit Commission.
Geddes, M. (2006) National Evaluation of Local Strategic Partnerships.
Theory of Change Paper Issues Paper. London: Department for
Communities and Local Government.
Stead, M. et al (2009) Changing attitudes, knowledge and behaviour. A
review of successful initiatives. York: JRF.
Thom, B. and Bayley, M. (2007) Multi-component programmes: An
approach to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harm. York: JRF
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Department for Transport (2006)
National Evaluation of Local Strategic Partnerships: Formative
Evaluation and Action Research 2002-2005. Executive Summary to
Final Report Programme. Wetherby : ODPM Publications.