Tina Pereira, PhD was trained and accredited as a Registered Intermediary (RI) by the Ministry of Justice in 2007. Since then she has worked in several Crown, Magistrate and Youth courts with witnesses and victims, defendants and respondents, mainly in the Midlands, UK.

 

Tina’s area of specialism is Learning Disability (LD) (adults and children). She also works with typically developing children. LD can be associated with a number of factors e.g. Genetic abnormalities such as Down’s Syndrome, neuro-developmental disorders such as Autism (ASD), Developmental Language Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). LD can often co-exist with Mental Health conditions.

 

Previously, Tina worked for many years as a specialist speech and language therapist in the UK and overseas previously, with a specific focus on LD.

 

She is highly experienced working with interpreters of South Asian languages, and delivers training relating to working with interpreters in the intermediary context.

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Tina develops and delivers bespoke individual and/or group training and mentoring for criminal justice practitioners. She has delivered training to several police forces, as well as intermediaries both in the UK and overseas.

 

Tina is especially interested in using low technology communication aids with vulnerable people who find it particularly difficult to use spoken language alone to communicate their account. Her PhD research related to the manner in which low technology communication aids managed by intermediaries improved the quality of evidence elicited by and from those with a Learning Disability in police interviews. 

 

She has delivered several presentations at national and international conferences on communication difficulties, vulnerable individuals in the Justice System and communication aids.

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Tina is a mentor for newly qualified intermediaries on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

 

She was formerly a trainer on the Ministry of Justice training team for Registered Intermediaries. 

 

Tina is a member of Intermediaries for Justice (the professional organisation for intermediaries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and was Honorary Secretary from December 2014 to November 2017. She is also a member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and the International Association of Forensic Linguists.

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Tina is passionate about enabling vulnerable people access equal opportunities in life, including within the Justice System.