Clinical Lead – Neurodiversity Speech & Language Therapy

Employer Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site North Middlesex University Hospital Town London Salary £63,665 - £70,887 per annum, pro rat inclusive of HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 21/10/2026 23:59

Clinical Lead – Neurodiversity Speech & Language Therapy

Band 8a

Our trust has over 17,000 staff serving 2 million patients every year. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, North Middlesex University Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This larger scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients.

Our mission is to deliver world class care and expertise in our clinical services, underpinned by world class teaching and research and we will continue to measure our progress against our five governing objectives: excellent outcomes, excellent patient and staff experience, excellent value for taxpayers’ money, being safe and meeting our external duties, and building a strong organisation.

Everyone is welcome at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME, gender equality, staff carers and people with disabilities and lived experiences to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants.However, it’s important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey. Further guidance can be found in the NLPSS Applicant Toolkit https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1 .

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is committed to ensuring that its recruitment processes are carried out with integrity, transparency, and fairness for all applicants. To help maintain these standards, we ask candidates to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the recruitment process.

If incorrect or misleading information is identified, this may affect the progression of an application, any employment offer, or continued employment. As part of our due diligence, the company may verify the information provided by applicants and take appropriate act ion where necessary.

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We are seeking to appoint a dynamic and enthusiastic candidate to the role of Clinical Lead – Neurodiversity Speech & Language Therapy at part time hours to provide high level managerial oversight and service to all patients and staff within the Neurodiversity team located at Cedar House, within our St. Michael's Community Hospital site. The weekly hours for this role will be agreed at interview.

The successful candidate will work as part of the neurodiversity Enfield team for Children 0-6. This is a multidisciplinary team which is designed to provide a needs-led, family-centred approach for children under the age of six with neurodivergent learning needs.

Please note:

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. The successful applicant may not work in Paediatrics upon completing their apprenticeship should no vacancies be present.

Main duties of the job

The role involves leading practice, providing specialist support to children and families, liaising with other professionals, and demonstrating a neuro-affirmative attitude to differences such as autism and ADHD.

The successful candidate will work closely with Health, Education, Social services and Voluntary services, Community Paediatricians, Therapists, Children with disabilities team, Health Visitors, School nurses, GPs Educational Psychologists and EASA. The aim is to provide a holistic approach in communicating and sharing advice, information and plans to all relevant parties and family.

They will also be a keyworker for a large number of families, and as such, will take the role of primarily liaison for the family in both positive and challenging times. The candidate will be expected to provide emotional and social support to parents and carers with additional needs and their families.

The post holder will possess advanced expertise in assessing and supporting children, young people, and families (CYPF) with neurodivergent learning needs. This will include managing a designated caseload, providing second opinions, offering specialist advice, and developing and delivering training for families and external services, such as healthcare providers and community partners.

Working for our organisation

North Mid is part of North Central London integrated care system – consisting of the NHS and Local authority organisations in Camden, Islington, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. As with other ICS’s, we are working increasingly closely with partners and indeed many of our financial and performance objectives are measured at this system level. Whilst all organisations remain as standalone, statutory bodies we have an ICS infrastructure for making shared decisions and agreeing shared approaches.

We are proud of our staff and want to ensure their training allows them to provide excellent clinical care. We are also a training unit for medical students from UCL and St George’s University Grenada, and for nursing and midwifery students from Middlesex and City Universities.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

A full list of duties and responsibilities will be found within the job description and requirements for the role can be found within the person specification.

Person specification

Education & Qualifications

• Recognised speech and language therapy degree of equivalent.
• Registration with the Health Professions council for licence to practice. (HCPC).
• Registered member of the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.
• Recognised postgraduate degree in a relevant area such as Autism.

Skills & Abilities

• Good communication and interpersonal skills.
• Able to construct clear care plans differentiating appropriate therapy from a range of options, based on analysis of information from assessment.
• Experience in delivering training.
• Ability to organise, plan, and prioritise own workload. Demonstrate the ability to generate appropriate strategies for caseload management.
• Ability to show sensitivity at all times to the emotional needs of clients and their carers in particular when imparting potentially distressing information.
• Proven ability to work as part of a team.
• Demonstrates empathy with clients, carers, and families, often where barriers to understanding exist ensuring that effective communication is achieved.
• Ability to speak another language fluently.

Experience

• Experience of working neurodivergent children.
• Experience of assessing children autism diagnostic purposes.
• Experience of working with other professionals and early years staffing.
• Ability to relate clinical theory to clinical practice.
• Knowledge and experience of a range of assessments appropriate for assessing social communication difficulties in pre-school and school children.
• Trained in ADOS (or willing to undertake this training).
• A knowledge of relevant policies and documents, e.g. Early Years Framework, SEN reforms.
• Experience of working with children in early years.
• Experience of working in children centres and nurseries, and schools.
• Experience of working with Consultant Paediatricians and Resident Doctors in training.

Personal Qualities

• Enthusiastic and motivated.
• Good interpersonal skills.
• Professional approach to work.
• Accountability – Takes responsibility for own actions and promotes good team working.
• Openness – Shares information and good practice appropriately.
• Mutual respect – Treats others with courtesy and respect.

Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.

Please note:

• Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date. Therefore please apply for this post as soon as you can, if you are interested and you meet the requirements of the Person Specification
• Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification will be shortlisted for this job.
• Interview arrangements will be communicated via email so please check your email regularly following the closing date.

Please be advised that due to exceptionally high demand, all Royal Free accommodation is at full capacity and waiting lists are being held. Average waiting times are 12 months. Please do not rely on Trust accommodation when you commence your role and ensure you investigate alternative accommodation for your arrival.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

We reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once a sufficient number of applications have been received.

Name Sally Mordi Job title Community Clinical Service Lead - CYP Therapies Email address sally.mordi@nhs.net Telephone number 0208 887 2000

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