The current pattern of services for people with severe or profound learning disabilities is radically different from that of just twenty years ago. For many people, ordinary housing now provides a real alternative to the long stay hospital, attempts to replace day centres with supported employment initiatives are gaining momentum and some progress is being made toward a more integrated system of education. Aided over recent years by funding improvements and policy guidance under theAll Wales Strategy(Welsh Office, 1983) Clwyd is one County where considerable headway has been made. The transition, however, has not been easy — change brings its own challenges. One of the major challenges facing service providers in Clwyd has been the provision of good quality community services for people with learning disabilities who display very challenging behaviour.This paper describes one service initiative which has formed part of Clwyd's overall response to challenging behaviour — the Clwyd Intensive Support Team (IST). In this paper, we explain our working definition of challenging behaviour before going on to describe the development of the Team, how it has operated and what the pattern of referrals has been like over the first three years. In a second paper, we will report on how the Team used its time, maintenance of outcomes to date, consumer satisfaction and what the Team has cost. We will conclude by delineating what we believe to be the essential elements of a specialist challenging‐behaviour peripatetic support