Neurodevelopmental Practitioner - #JBD8538

Pay: £44,100 (pro rata salary of £8820). Hours: 7.5 hours per week. Company: The Nook Therapy Clinic. Location: London, South Kensington. Responsible to: Service Manager. Accountable to: Service Manager.

Our Company The Nook Therapy Clinic is a specialist healthcare company working to support children, younger people and their families affected by mental health, Autism and ADHD conditions to support individuals and families to reach their full potential.

Main Purpose of the Job: This post holder will work as part of The Nook Therapy Clinic providing diagnostic assessment to young people and adults. This role is open only to HCPC registered professionals that can offer expertise in the field of autism and ADHD. The post holder will support and develop designated members of staff and provide advice and awareness raising of neurodiversity across agencies to facilitate group activities, contributing to planning and implementation of interventions. We are only accepting applications from individuals who are trained in the administration of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2).

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the development, co-ordination and evaluation of specialist interventions provided within the Neurodevelopmental Service.
• Support and contribute to research projects, ensuring interventions are evidence based and comply with NICE guidelines, current legislation pertaining to autism and ADHD and professional standards.
• Undertake a caseload to support senior Neurodevelopmental Team colleagues and work according to a plan agreed with the Team Lead and Clinical Lead for the service.
• Offer specialist knowledge and skills applied through theoretical and practical experience and contribute to multi-disciplinary case discussion.
• Undertake training and become proficient under supervision in the assessment of autism and ADHD and use of diagnostic assessment tools as recommended in NICE guidance.
• Ensure effective and timely contribution to multi-disciplinary team discussion and supervision around diagnostic assessment.
• Contribute to the development of the service, supporting the organisation to implement a range of activities and/or programmes.
• Provide specialist advice and consultation to other professionals forging strong relationships across the Neurodevelopment multidisciplinary team (MDT) and other agencies.
• Manage own caseload providing support and advice to individuals with autism spectrum conditions and ADHD.
• Service Management to ensure adherence to Health Board policies and procedures and legislation and good practice guidance around autism and ADHD at all times.
• Contribute to the development and review of Neurodevelopmental team policies and procedures.
• Critically evaluate research evidence relating to clinical effectiveness and share this information with other team members.
• Highlight unmet need for this service area to respective senior colleagues.
• Contribute to, and support senior colleagues in relation to Neurodevelopmental service audits, service evaluation and quality improvement.
• Support an effective system to enable service users and family/carer involvement in service development.
• Utilise theory, evidence-based literature, and research to inform own work.
• Contribute to clinical research, as opportunities arise.

Communication and Relationships:

• Communicate with clients, their relatives and multi-agency professionals regarding complex condition-related, sensitive and/or distressing information.
• Attendance at case conferences, meetings and reviews as required.
• Prepare comprehensive, analytical, and sensitively written diagnostic assessment reports on service users.
• Ensure appropriate and timely sharing of information with other agencies as required/with consent.
• Develop and deliver a range of educational and training materials in a range of settings through different mediums.

Knowledge, Skills Training and Experience:

• Relevant degree in professional specialism (Nursing/Allied Health Professional/Social Worker/Education).
• Registered member of Professional body (NMC, HCPC, ECW, CCW, RCOT).
• Willingness to train in the use of specific autism and ADHD diagnostic assessment instruments.
• Demonstrates an understanding of the needs of autistic individuals, individuals with ADHD and their families/carers/partners.
• Has insight into the changing needs of those with autism and ADHD across the lifespan.
• Has knowledge of multi-agency partnership working and/or provision of multidisciplinary care/support for autistic people.
• Has knowledge of standards of record keeping.
• Has an understanding of the impact of local, cultural, linguistic and demographic factors which influence service delivery in own clinical specialism.
• Has knowledge of working with adults and/or children and their families with Autism and/or ADHD.
• Willingness to develop knowledge and experience in working with ASD and ADHD across the life span.
• Experience of multi-agency partnership working and ability to promote multi-disciplinary/multiagency and collaborative practice with a wide range of partners.
• Ability and experience in developing, planning implementing and delivering a range of training packages to others.
• Experience in using information gathering/reporting systems and is IT literate in the use of appropriate software.

Financial and Physical Resources:

• Be responsible for managing own time effectively and applying prudent health care principles when managing workload and travel time.

Personal and People Development and Management:

• Actively participate in professional and personal development ensuring completion of mandatory and core training required for the role.
• Ensure active engagement with clinical and line management supervision offered.
• Attend Community of Practice network events as deemed necessary by Team Lead.
• Ensure active engagement with performance appraisal reviews as per Health Board policy.
• Supervise junior staff members as required.

Information Resources:

• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the BPS as well as The Nook Therapy Clinics policies and procedures.
• To use Digital Recording Equipment as per The Nook Therapy Clinic Handbook.
• Responsible for collation and analysis of assessment and evaluation data, may be required to set up new databases to collect and analyse clinical information for audit and/or research purposes.
• Be familiar and confident with various IT packages Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel.

Freedom to Act:

• The post-holder works within limits agreed and managed by the clinical lead.
• The post holder will receive regular supervision from a qualified clinical psychologist.

Health and Safety:

• The Nook Therapy Clinic is committed to protect its staff, patients, assets and reputation through an effective risk management process.
• The post holder will be required to comply with The Nook Therapy Clinic policies in relation to risk of self and others and actively participate in this process and have responsibility for managing risks and reporting exceptions.

Physical Effort:

• Physical strain occurs due to sitting for lengthy periods either in clinical sessions, meetings or at a computer.
• Physical effort is required in transporting and carrying test materials and equipment between bases for use in clinical sessions.

Mental Effort:

• Substantial mental effort is required in conducting specialised assessments requiring a high level of concentration to ensure that all necessary information is gathered from a range of sources, and assessment procedures are carried out according to established protocols to ensure validity and reliability.
• Concentrated mental effort is required for report writing in order to summarise cogently key issues.

Emotional Effort:

• High levels of emotional effort are required in dealing with clients who are upset, overwhelmed by events or symptoms, highly anxious or angry.

Equality and Diversity:

• The Post Holder is expected to have continuous regard for the Equality Act (2010) and always act in ways that support equality and value diversity.

The above is not an exhaustive list of duties and you will be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by your changing role within the organisation and the overall business objectives of the organisation.