Professor David Lane created the first CBT-based service in the UK in 1975 working with schools in Islington to support children, and to provide training in CBT principles to teachers to ensure that children could be kept in school rather than excluded. He also undertook long-term research into the programme with a 20-year follow up which demonstrated its effectiveness. He used a research-led approach with publications for the BABP journal in 1976 and for Kings Fund in 1975 as well as the Impossible Child books.
Along with Delwyn Tatum he wrote the first book in the UK on School Bullying which gained huge impact in the press across the globe, and created widespread change in schools service – he then commissioned other books on the topic to promote the work of others in the field. He has continued to publish in collaboration with other leading authors in recent years on the subject of Supervision.
Professor Lane promoted CBT at a time when it was a marginal area of practice, and created services that generated
respectability for the approach. He continues to be an active and effective ambassador for CBT through training and coaching.
