Our story so far

Founded in 1997 by Dr Ruth Marchant and Mary Jones Triangle provides skilled support for children, young people and vulnerable adults in different settings including legal proceedings.

Triangle is now led by our team of Directors; Maxime Cole, Laura Jones, Carly McAuley and Anthony Julyan.

Triangle is independent. That means we aren't part of social services, the government, the police or the courts.  We are not a charity or voluntary agency.

We provide specialist services for children and people with communication differences across the UK. We have particular expertise with very young children and people with complex communication needs arising from impairment or trauma. We are regularly instructed in the most complex and high profile situations, and have been involved in many landmark developments in children’s evidence and in careful, child-centred communication. We also provide training and resources and contribute to national policy and guidance.

Triangle provides Intermediary Services to the family and criminal court to support communication during family proceedings and criminal proceedings. We can also help by providing intermediary support for other types of proceedings such as tribunals and extradition hearings.

We work directly with children, young people and people with communication differences, and we teach and advise professionals.  We also provide communication assistance and expert opinion to the courts.

Our mission

Our mission is to reposition children and young people, and adults with communication differences as competent communicators and active agents in their own lives, making a real and measurable difference by:

• Working collaboratively with the people using our services to provide innovative, evidence-based support.
• Communicating with individuals carefully, skilfully and respectfully in all that we do.
• Ensuring individual’s needs are properly understood and their views heard.
• Enabling people using our services to give their best evidence in legal proceedings.
• Providing effective, person-centred support, advocacy and therapy.
• Promoting the safe inclusion of children and young people who present challenging and/or sexually concerning behaviour.
• Leading research, training and resource development to enable the work of others.

Our values

Triangle’s practice is built on some very clear values:

• Everyone has the right to learn, grow and take risks, to be respected and to be involved in decisions about their lives.
• Individuals should be active partners in the assessment of their situations and generally should be approached as the primary client in our work: we aim to avoid placing children or young people in passive, vulnerable or victim roles.
• An individual’s needs, including those arising from their impairments or experiences, must be properly understood to enable meaningful participation and ensure their needs are met.
• An individual’s communicative competence can be enabled or constrained by adult behaviour and as part of our role we may need to intervene with adults within and beyond Triangle.

We are dedicated to partnering with the people who use our services, valuing their feelings, perspectives, and those of their close connections.

We are strongly committed to anti-oppressive practices and providing services that are sensitive to the unique needs of children, young people, and families. Our approach is guided by the social model of disability, which highlights how oppression often stems from societal barriers rather than the person’s impairment alone. As a result, many of the people who use our services face two challenges: the direct effects of their condition, difference or impairment and the difficulties of living in a world that is not accommodating to their needs.