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This paper therefore proposes a new developmental disorder: 'severe personality disorder emerging in childhood'. The existing evidence base strongly supports the presence of a developmental trajectory from childhood to adult life for the small number of children who show early signs of severe personality disorder (SPD). Based on a review of the literature and the experience of working in a specialist, forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), a multi-factorial model is proposed that outlines the developmental trajectory of SPD. This model includes neurobiological, psychosocial, environmental and systemic factors, within a developmental framework, and contributes to a more developmentally appropriate understanding of the genesis of severe personality disorder.

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PurposeMainstream offender treatment programmes are mainly inaccessible to offenders who have learning disabilities, which may mean those convicted of offences either receive inappropriate treatment or no offender treatment at all. There is developing, but patchy, provision of community‐based specialist offender treatment for people who have learning disabilities. This paper seeks to describe the evolving process of developing the Good Thinking! course, a group‐based offender treatment programme which aims to help address this need.Design/methodology/approachThe Good Thinking! course comprises 23 two‐hour sessions run once a week in a community setting. It is based on the premise that people who commit offences are often trying to meet ordinary life goals through anti‐social means. It aims to help participants identify and understand their goals, develop the social skills necessary to attain them and teaches a problem‐solving strategy for more complex problems.FindingsThis paper describes the process of developing the course material, providing the course and adapting it in light of feedback from participants, referrers and carers. A description of the course and a case study are provided. Insufficient data have been produced to enable a formal evaluation of the effectiveness of the Good Thinking! course; as more data are generated, the team plan to achieve this.Originality/valueThe paper aims to inform and encourage clinicians and commissioners working in this field to increase the availability of specialist community‐based treatments for offenders who have learning disabilities.