Once a TranSTEP relevant issue has reached a problem owner’s table and this institution has decided to take action, a secretariat function needs to be established. Different institutions will have different resources and routines for organising this. Some will outsources the secretariat function and some may do it in-house. For very controversial issues where trust in the problem owner is low, outsourcing may increase the public’s and stakeholders’ belief that the TranSTEP group is indeed independent. However, distancing it from the problem owner’s home community may also lead to a missed opportunity for learning within the problem owner institution.
Whether or not the secretariat function is outsourced, it should be clearly separate from the TranSTEP group, which it serves.
The secretariat has the following functions:…