This guide provides a structured approach to achieving behaviour change. It is based on a framework known as the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW).
Resource
Local government and partners such as the NHS, emergency services, and the third sector often need to achieve changes in the behaviour of those living or working in a local place in order to meet their goals: for example, improving health, reducing air pollution, household waste, and energy usage, and regenerating high streets.
This guide provides a structured approach to achieving behaviour change. It is based on a framework known as the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW). An equivalent guide focusing on national government policies and behaviour change is also being developed. For many policy objectives, local and national policies need to be coordinated to have maximum impact.
The BCW can be used to help:
- develop behaviour change interventions from scratch;
- build on or modify existing interventions; and
- choose from existing or planned interventions.
The BCW involves a number of processes to achieve this, which are:
Assessment
Evaluating the appropriateness of existing or proposed interventions in terms of the ‘APEASE’ criteria:
- Acceptability
- Practicability
- Effectiveness
- Affordability
- Side-effects
- Equity
Behaviour selection
Identifying and selecting key behaviours to focus on in order to achieve policy objectives.
COM-B diagnosis
Working out what will most likely bring about the desired behaviour in terms of changes in the target group’s Capability, Opportunity, and/or Motivation to engage in the Behaviour.
Selecting intervention types
Identifying the broad types of intervention matched to the COM-B diagnosis: Education, Persuasion, Incentivisation, Coercion, Training, Environmental restructuring, Modelling, and Enablement.
Formulating an implementation strategy
Choosing how to deliver interventions using:
- Guidelines
- Legislation
- Service provision
- Fiscal measures
- Environmental/social planning
- Communications and marketing
- Restriction and regulation
Constructing the intervention
Deciding the details of the intervention content and delivery.
The guide introduces tools and provides case examples for each of these processes that can be used all together or as required during the development process. The guide also points to further reading and resources, including the full guide to using the BCW.
It is important to note at the outset that the BCW is not a substitute for topic-specific knowledge; rather, it provides a structured way of using that knowledge to make judgements about the behaviour, context, and target group that we are concerned with. Where expertise in the topic being addressed or in behavioural science more generally is lacking, it should be sought where possible.
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