Achieving collaborative advantage in policing: strategic and frontline partnership in police-led drug diversion schemes in England

This article advances understanding of the conditions and processes of effective partnership working in the criminal justice system (CJS) through a realist evaluation of the contents, contexts, moderators, and mechanisms of effective collaboration in three police-led drug diversion (PDD) schemes operating in England. The analysis differentiates between commissioned or strategic, statutory, or formal and informal or personal partnerships, ‘mapping’ these across the evaluated schemes. The discussion then considers those partnership mechanisms most pertinent to achieving collaborative advantage, that is, the desired advantage to be gained from partnership. It is argued that partnership work is both an ‘essential component’ and a ‘facilitation strategy’ of PDD implementation fidelity. Partnership, in other words, is both a necessary condition and a contingent cause of effective practice in this form of policing. These findings add new insights to the emergent PDD academic evidence base and operational policy and practice.