The capacity for teaching formulation to probation officers could be investigated further by comparing the process with formulation development by mental health experts with previously extensive formulation experience. Formulation will probably need to be adapted to meet the needs of the context in which it is developed. The relationship between formulation and management outcome was not investigated here and would be a further important step.

Personality difficulties provide challenges to offender management, particularly in regard to risk and diagnosis. No provisions exist for identifying personality disturbance in probation services, despite a political emphasis on the need for specialist knowledge of this group in the criminal justice system. This article reports on a pilot project where mental health professionals collaborated with probation services to develop methods of identifying personality disturbance in a London sample. There was a disproportionately large ratio of Black/Black British individuals identified in this study. There was a high prevalence of personality problems in probation caseloads. Different sampling methods identified separate groups of high risk personality disturbed offenders. All individuals identified carried a high risk of re-offending, based on static risk assessments. Emphasis was given to the importance of using developmental variables to help identify adult personality disturbance. The study discovered

Observations from experiences of the 2-year pilot and ideas to assist with a wider implementation of the strategy are provided.

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Future research should examine the continued rollout of the LPP service, and importantly the relationship between salient individual, risk and personality features, pathway inputs and measures of later reoffending. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.