What Is The Behavioural Insights Team’s Barrier Identification Tool?

This tool will help you to identify and categorise the barriers to a behaviour that you’re trying to change.

• Step 1: The COM-B Model Overview – a behaviour change framework that can be used to identify barriers to behaviour.
• Step 2: Review a worked example of how this tool can be used to identify barriers to a behaviour.
• Step 3: Use the tool to identify barriers to a behaviour you’re trying to change.

Step 1: Overview of the COM-B Model.

​The COM-B model can be used to categorise barriers into three groups. 

1. ​Capabilities – refer to a person's physical or psychological ability to perform the behaviour.
2. Opportunities – refer to anything in the physical or social environment that may encourage or discourage a behaviour.
3.  Motivations – refer to internal reflective and automatic mechanisms that activate or inhibit a behaviour.

Step 2: Review a worked example of how this tool can be used to identify barriers to a behaviour.

​Take a look at the detailed example below before identifying the barriers that may be preventing the behaviour that you are trying to change. 

​Problem: Resistance to antibiotics is increasing due to high levels of prescribing from GPs. This means that a growing number of infections such as pneumonia are becoming more difficult to treat because antibiotics are less effective.

​High-level goal: To reduce antimicrobial resistance.

​Specific behaviours we want to change: GPs do not prescribe an antibiotic unnecessarily.

Step 3: Use the tool to identify barriers to a behaviour you’re trying to change.

​How it works 

​Once you have narrowed your focus from a high-level goal to a specific behaviour that you want to change, the next step is to identify the barriers to this behaviour.

What is preventing the behaviour that you’re trying to encourage from being performed?

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