Maria Hancock, Linda Taylor, Charmaine Wilson, Sarah Taite and Jodie Cudworth are now Vulnerable Witness Trained.

Following on from the success of the ‘Advocacy for Vulnerable People and Children’ course, the ICCA and the FLBA have collaborated on the creation of a brand new bespoke course for the Family Bar.

The course centres around a case study, founded on the same principles as the criminal course, that has been adjusted to represent proceedings in the family court.  The new FLBA course is also underpinned the 20 Principles of Questioning.

There is also a shared learning objective for all delegates, to understand the key principles behind the approach to and questioning of vulnerable people in the justice system, irrespective of the nature of the allegation or the jurisdiction in which the advocate appears, as the organisers explain:

The Advocacy and the Vulnerable training programme has been developed to equip all advocates who deal with vulnerable witnesses with the skills to question those witnesses in an appropriate fashion, based on an understanding of the key principles behind it. Training is delivered by the Inns and Circuits, based on materials which have been prepared by the Inns of Court College of Advocacy. It is anticipated that Advocacy and the Vulnerable training will become mandatory for any advocate wishing to undertake publicly funded work in serious sexual offence cases involving vulnerable witnesses.