This is the first of two papers focusing upon a new approach to staff development provision within Basildon and Thurrock Health Authority's service for people with learning disabilities. The ‘Education and Training for Change’ programme was set up in January 1990 on a contractual basis between the learning disabilities service (the purchaser) and a local HE College (the provider) which has since become a Polytechnic. Both the papers reflect on different aspects of the programme during its first eighteen months of operation, and attempt to draw some preliminary conclusions that may be of interest to other services.This paper addresses the joint nature of the programme and the particular model of provision adopted, where the staff are ‘in, but not of the service’ i.e. sited in, but not employed or managed by the service. Some of the strengths and difficulties of such a model are highlighted, particularly as they apply during a time of organisational change, and the lessons we have drawn from our experiences are e