From ABA to SPR: 30 years developing evidence based services for the treatment and prevention of conduct disorder in Wales

Purpose – This paper describes the author's work during 35 years as a clinical psychologist in the NHS in Wales working mainly with conduct disordered children and their families. It describe how from initially working within an applied behaviour analysis (ABA) framework with individual families she subsequently established and researched the group based Incredible Years (IY) parent programme in Wales and led a Wales‐wide dissemination of the IY programmes. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a case study example of the use of the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) criteria for translational research, that is research that can be applied successfully in the real world. Findings – Many of the challenges were overcome through the inclusion of strategies to maximise effectiveness with differing populations, and by gaining the support of government and local services. Originality/value – The paper discusses the challenges of taking an evidence‐based programme to scale.