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Applied psychology interventions have an important role to play in mental and physical health services with offenders and in reducing re‐offending. There has been a significant growth of the evidence on the effectiveness of specific interventions. Barriers still exist to delivering effective psychological interventions.Psychological interventions also have a key role in comprehensive, accessible services with offenders in relation to long‐term disorders as well as co‐morbid problems. Until 2000 offenders were largely excluded from mainstream health and social care provision. Very significant progress has been made in this respect. The provision of mainstream psychological therapies had until recently lagged behind other areas of health care. As a result, Applied Psychology Group (APG) has developed a new strategy, with a shift of emphasis towards strategic development of psychological interventions ‐ away from a primary focus on psychologists, to psychology and its applications.This paper outlines recent developments designed to ensure delivery of high‐quality psychological interventions in Health and Offender Partnerships.

The area of risk assessment of suicide in prisons is addressed. The role of mental disorder, anger and violence are considered. A theoretical model of suicidal behaviour is presented. The value of such models, as a means of integrating research data into evidence‐based practice is reviewed.

Risk assessment is a fundamental aspect of forensic practice. This paper reviews some of the logical issues inherent in the process of assessing risk. A structured generic model for conducting such assessments is outlined and explicated. This is followed by coverage of some of the major recent research findings, with a particular focus on the assessment of risk of violence towards others in forensic mental health contexts. In conclusion some of the major points for practice and future research are discussed.