Inter-agency practice and professional collaboration: the case of drug education and prevention

Abstract

Abstract Since the 1980s, UK governments have encouraged inter-agency approaches to complex social and economic problems such as crime prevention and urban regeneration. New Labour's 'modernizing government' agenda also attaches great importance to partnerships as a means of achieving 'joined-up' thinking and 'joined-up' policy. Interagency working is complex because professionals are differently situated and constrained institutionally by different policy frameworks, and this can be seen in the case of the government's drugs strategy which encourages such collaboration. In this paper, a case study of drug education and prevention is used to consider some of the issues involved in inter-agency working and professional collaboration within a context of changing governance.