The witness intermediary program was launched in the territory in January. The scheme was a recommendation from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

An intermediary provides support to witnesses to help them give clear evidence to police and the court. ACT police can call on the 24/7 service if they deem an intermediary is needed for questioning.

There have been more than 40 referrals from the ACT Policing's Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team over the past six months and, so far, all of the requests have been matched.

About 75 per cent of all referrals have been for people aged 15 and under. The youngest referral was a three-year-old and the oldest was a 92-year-old. The referrals were for a range of communication issues. Most were related to age and language delays or disorders.

The program's director Kath Taplin said the take-up had been strong and police had contacted the service requesting an intermediary in the first week of the program.

"I think people don't want children and people with disabilities to have a rough trot in the justice system," she said.

"Hundreds and hundreds of years have passed without the ability to help children through the cross-examination process."

There are two full-time intermediaries and a panel of 15 external intermediaries. The intermediaries are independent communication specialists who are typically allied-health professionals such as speech pathologists, psychologists and social workers.

An intermediary also conducts communication assessments to get an understanding of the needs of a witness and to build a rapport.

Ms Taplin said the introduction of the program was easier than she thought it would be.

"Kids might not have the right words for what might have happened or they might use different words for things," she said.

"While the police have quite a lot of experience they are not speech pathologists, child psychologists or occupational therapists.

"So SACAT immediately started calling intermediaries to assist."

Sarah Cocco is one of the two in-house intermediaries.

"Witnesses with communication needs or very young witnesses sometimes need support to tell their story and intermediaries have significant training and professional experience," she said.

Ms Cocco has a background in social sciences and has previously worked in child protection in another jurisdiction. She said she used a range of techniques to help witnesses with their stress and trauma.

"The importance of things such as regular breaks, the use of 'distract-er' items [such as] fiddle toys, some are really interesting and exciting and they assist witnesses to focus on the questioning at hand but also to regulate any feelings of stress or anxiety that may have arisen," she said.

"We might use things such a post-it notes so the witness is not holding things in their head, they can actually put it down on paper and have it an order so it's in front of them.

"It's always the police's interview or the judge's court but we can make recommendations around that so it might be the need for a break or it might be the ability of the saying of a particular word."

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Intermediaries have been available in England for several years. In Australia, there are schemes in NSW, South Australia and Western Australia.

Unlike other jurisdictions, the accused party can also access an intermediary in the ACT.

The ACT government budgeted $2.3 million for the scheme in last year's budget across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years and laws were passed in the ACT legislative assembly last year.

ACT victims of crime commissioner Heidi Yates had called for the scheme when she entered the role in March 2018. She said the issues raised in the royal commission were her motivation.

"We know there are particularly vulnerable cohorts in our community who are disproportionately targeted by perpetrators of sexual abuse partly because those perpetrators know it's incredibly difficult for children, young people and adults with communication difficulties to communicate what has happened to the formal criminal justice system," she said.

"Intermediaries are an incredibly important addition to our criminal justice response in ensuring we hear the voices of vulnerable complainants and that we can do that in a way that doesn't re-traumatise them."