Addressing barriers to joint working
1 September 2016
THE LIFE SMART Waste project has published two reports that aim to scope and address the barriers to joint working between agencies, nationally and transnationally, on interventions to tackle waste crime.
The first report was completed in December 2015 and acknowledged that waste crime is an issue that affects environmental authorities, law enforcement and industry alike, at a national and international level. Partnerships and joint intervention strategies are considered essential for achieving the common goals of reducing criminality and environmental harm in the waste sector. Based on qualitative research, this preliminary report identified a number of common barriers that have a detrimental effect on such collaborations as the first stage in making progress to overcome them.
On the basis of these findings, the LIFE SMART Waste project undertook further research to identify and evaluate potential solutions for overcoming the barriers identified. In August 2016, a second report was produced which highlights the need for more focus to be placed on less tangible options such as communications, awareness raising and collaborative mind-sets to overcome partnership barriers.
The second report also provides a starting-point for the development, for the first time, of a practical guide (for environmental regulators and investigators) to designing intervention groups which tackle specific waste crime issues. An assessment of INTERPOL’s National Environmental Security Task Force (NEST) model’s effectiveness in providing a partnership framework for overcoming these barriers concluded with a recommendation that an amended NEST model is adopted as the basic framework for the design of future intervention groups.
For more information, read the full reports:
- Barriers to Joint Working: Issues affecting joint working in tackling waste crime
- Overcoming Barriers to Joint Working: Group Structures Required
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