Jo Henderson joined The Intermediary Cooperative in 2024 following a 30-year career working in children and family services, starting out as a social worker and progressing into a number of leadership and safeguarding roles.
Her first experience of an intermediary was several years ago when she saw first hand the difference they can make in a Family Court setting. When, more recently, she was looking for a fresh challenge, she spotted an advert for The Intermediary Cooperative and after hearing about the not-for-profit organisation’s ethos, decided to train to become one of its members.
Jo, who predominantly works in the London and South East region, said: “Becoming an intermediary is such a good fit for me. Having worked in children and family services all my career, I have seen at first hand how many mothers and fathers have real communication support needs. A lot of these parents who find themselves in the Family Court have been through the care system themselves.
“While we can’t change the system, what we can do as intermediaries is try to make the court environment less intimidating, the process easier to understand and to give vulnerable service users the chance to be heard.”
The difference an intermediary can make to a parent in the Family Court was highlighted recently in a case in which Jo acted as the intermediary.
Jo explained: “The service user faced a local authority application for full care orders for her two children.
“She was assessed as having various vulnerabilities that significantly impacted her ability to participate in the court process including difficulties processing long sentences and grammatical structures, limited literacy skills and emotional dysregulation.
“She was extremely anxious in the court setting and, at times, became very distressed which prevented her from participating in a meaningful and coherent way.
“Intermediary assistance was agreed throughout the process and benefited the service user in many ways, most importantly enabling greater participation and understanding.
“I provided her with adult fidget toys, which had been agreed prior to the start of the hearing. She was also provided with several visual aids to which she was able to refer throughout, indicating if information was wrong or not understood.
“I sat beside the mother throughout and next to the witness box when she gave her evidence. This included providing simple explanations to the client in real time, where necessary, throughout the hearing.
“Any queries that required a more detailed explanation or discussion with her counsel, were recorded by myself and discussed with the client’s team during breaks.”
By being in attendance throughout, Jo was able to indicate to counsel and the judge when the mother was becoming overwhelmed and needed a break and a room was booked and available throughout for her sole use throughout the process.
Jo also made notes of key points, in a clear and direct way, for the client to take away from the hearing. She also discussed with advocates for the local authority and the children’s guardian how best to cross examine and question the mother.
Specific guidance was also given in relation to reframing and simplifying questions as well as advice as to how the client could remain more emotionally regulated throughout the process of questioning.
Jo added: “The judge regularly checked in with me in relation to how the hearing would proceed to enable best participation, including how final submissions and the judgement would be best communicated.
“The judge stated that they wished to write the final judgement in a way that the mother could understand and retain and asked if I would check the first draft of the judgement accordingly, prior to it being handed down.”
As such the judgement went to Jo before it was shared with other parties to review and the judge accepted all the suggestions Jo made that would assist the mother in her understanding.
Reflecting on the case, Jo said the continuous support of an intermediary benefited the client in several ways including:
- Enabling the client to be heard thanks to a strong working relationship between the barrister and intermediary and the judge.
- Supporting emotional regulation, something the client needed help with on several occasions during the week-long hearing and without which she may not have been able to continue to participate effectively.
- Simplifying the judgement – thanks to the proactive approach of the presiding judge in involving the intermediary, the final judgement was simplified and easier for the client to understand.