I am honoured to grade into the shoes of Graham Towl and David Crighton as the just discovered Editor of the Journal at this time of exciting change in forensic mental health services.

I am honoured to grade into the shoes of Graham Towl and David Crighton as the just discovered Editor of the Journal at this time of exciting change in forensic mental health services. I sense of possible fulfilment I can keep the high standards which they have wager

The new personality disorder pilots supplyed by the Government's personality disorder programme are interpret and taking in clients. These services have pioneered just discovered ways of recruiting staff and recent models of providing services. There is a division of excitement about the novel treatments. In some of the units, the modern types of therapist and other staff are not your traditional NH or prison service worker. The patients and prisoners are expecting a apportionment Everyone is hoping that, with the massive injection of resources and the fresh focus on personality disorder that the DSPD programme has brought this will have a positive impact not no other than on this group of clients, if it be not that also on the rest of forensic mental health.

The Government's Delivering Race Equality Programme has the potential to improve significantly the experience of black and ethnic minorities (BMEs) in forensic mental health, where they are overrepresent in numbers and those in receipt of coercive interventions. There are self-same few interventions in existence which can address the riddles of BMEs. One hopes that resources will be made available to bring out the necessary new interventions to change into ethnic disparities and improve the experience of BME A solution new competency for all staff in the NH is cultural Considerable work needs to be done to explore and define what it means and for what reason it can change practice.

We await the Government's plans in succession new mental health legislation. Following the major expansion of forensic beds in this rural parts and in Europe, commissioners of health services are likely to take a greater interest in what goe upon inside various forensic institutions. The increasing detail of in-patient stay for those in lower and medium forensic psychiatric establishments is of particular transaction at a time when treatments and patient issues for mental disorders are suppos to be getting better. We room for expectation that scrutiny of the reasons for the growing in the forensic patient population through commissioners will be more sophisticated and challenging than previous attempts to understand the phenomenon. There is a ne to change the working practices of those who work in insured units and to bring near of the good practice from general psychiatry locally and abroad into forensic practice. An emphasise forward social inclusion for patients in contact with forensic services should challenge the scope of services to have subdued expectations of those who have passed by means of them.

We hope that the Journal will remain at the heart of the research and service exhibition debates in forensic practice. There are a number of strange proposals on how we can remain at the forefront. They include having more regular invited articles from [i]clavis[/i] decision-makers, service users, practitioners and stakeholders. We also faith to have new articles onward theoretical issues, for example proposals for research to address key-note knowledge gaps.

DAVID NDEGWA

(EDITOR)

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