The Judicial Guide scheme plays an important part in the Targeted Outreach programme offered by the JAC.
It matches participants on the programme to a member of the courts and tribunals judiciary. Applicants are then able to receive support from their guide as they go through JAC selection exercises such as:
- online application forms
- sifting stages
- interview skills
- role plays or situational questions skills,
- interpreting feedback effectively.
Not all programme applicants are offered support from a Judicial Guide.
About Judicial Guides
All Judicial Guides are accredited following formal training. They support candidates by utilising their professional expertise and knowledge of the JAC’s selection exercise processes.
The Targeted Outreach and Research team matches Judicial Guides to candidates by reviewing a Judicial Guide’s professional experience and expertise alongside a candidate’s intended JAC selection exercise and support needs.
For any questions or if you are interested in becoming a Judicial Guide, contact targetedoutreach@judicialappointments.gov.uk.
How the scheme is run
The Judicial Guide scheme is co-badged with the Senior Judiciary and supported by the Judicial Office. It is currently supported by accredited Judicial Guides, representing both courts and tribunals.
They are experienced with the JAC selection exercise processes and can provide candidates with application support.
It focuses on supporting candidates through the stages of the JAC selection exercise process, rather than coaching, courtcraft and judgment writing offered by the Judicial Outreach Mentoring Scheme.
The Judicial Guide scheme is supported by a Director and Deputy Director of Training. On behalf of the Judiciary, part of their portfolio includes the training and development of Judicial Guides, as well as managing the effectiveness of support to the Targeted Outreach programme.
Judge Carolyn Fyall
Co-Director of Training
HHJ Georgina Sharkey
Co-Director of Training
More about Carolyn
Judge Carolyn Fyall is the Judicial Guide scheme Co-Director of Training. Carolyn is a salaried Judge, sitting in the Mental Health Tribunal, Health Education and Social Care Chamber.
Previously a solicitor, an academic at Northumbria University and a Mental Health Act Commissioner, she has always worked in the area of mental health law with a view to supporting the rights of detained patients.
More about Georgina
HHJ Georgina Sharkey is the new co-Director of Training for the Judicial Guide Scheme, alongside Tribunal Judge Carolyn Fyall. State-school educated in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, she read European law at Warwick University, including her third year studying French law at the University of Bordeaux.
Called to the Bar in 2000, she practised for 18 years, during which she had two children and was away from the Bar for several years.
From 2013, she served for five years on barrister disciplinary hearings as a member of the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service, before being appointed as an Assistant Coroner first in Doncaster in 2016, and then in Kent in 2017.
In 2019, aged 41, she was appointed a Circuit Judge at Snaresbrook Crown Court, where she is the lead section 28 judge.
In January 2025, she was appointed Deputy Chief Coroner of England and Wales, and continues to sit annually as an Assistant Coroner in the two areas in which she was originally appointed.