Principle Clinical Psychologist & Pathway Lead in Enfield

Employer Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site St Michaels Primary Care Centre Town Enfield Salary £72,719 - £83,505 Per annum including HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 07/10/2026 23:59

Principle Clinical Psychologist & Pathway Lead

Band 8b

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 .

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We are seeking to appoint a dynamic and enthusiastic candidate to the role of Principle Clinical Psychologist & Pathway Lead – Autism & ADHD Neuro Pathway Services 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 Neuro-development Pathway (NDP) Lead will manage daily operations, planning, and performance of the NDP Team, ensuring service delivery is efficient, evidence-based, and focused on the needs of service users and carers. Collaborating with the Senior Management Team (SMT) and other Team Leaders, the post holder ensures timely treatment by motivated staff, promoting safety and success for children and young people.

The role involves building strong community connections, optimizing resources to meet patient needs, and adhering to commissioning priorities from the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and stakeholders. The post holder will oversee referral, assessment, and patient allocation processes, working with senior managers, clinical leads, and team members to meet performance targets and implement improvements as necessary.

Additionally, the NDP Lead will offer clinical assessment and intervention as required. Reporting to the Service Lead and Head of Service, they will monitor clinical recording systems (Rio) to manage patient flow, assessment bookings, outcomes, and waiting times. This role includes leading weekly huddles, team meetings, and participating in relevant meetings to ensure patient flow is managed and escalated when needed. The post holder will also ensure adherence to the Standard Operational Policy, addressing pathway pressures appropriately.

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 ICBS’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 ICp 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

• Postgraduate training in an area of neurodivergence such as Autism.
• Registered with the Health Professional Council (HCPC).
• Up to date clinical registrations e.g. RCSLT
• Further training in a specialist area of neurodivergence through formal training such as a diploma or equivalent, or a combination of specialist short courses.
• Completion of a clinical supervision training course.
• Level 3 Children’s Safeguarding training.
• Additional training in specialist areas of neurodivergence such as positive behaviour support, trauma informed practice.
• Specialised training and experience in the diagnosis and treatment of pre-school children with neuro- developmental differences.
• Skilled in the use of complex methods of assessment, intervention, and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally, and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers, and other professional colleagues both within and outside of the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialist therapies which are known to support neurodivergent children.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Ability to contain, explore, and formulate an understanding of high levels of distress, both directly with patients and indirectly via supervision of other staff.
• Capacity to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face highly emotive and distressing problems, and situations where there may be resistance, verbal aggression, or the threat of physical aggression.
• Understands the importance of assessment that explores and considers individual cultural identity and associated support needs.
• Ability to undertake clinical risk assessment and to work within safeguarding procedures.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group.
• Understanding of the need and rationale for using evidence-based therapies.
• Ability to use MS Word and Excel to write reports and analyse and present data.
• Competent in the use of clinical recording systems such as RiO.
• Understanding of the process for keeping safe, secure, and relevant clinical records.
• Ability to use email to support effective communication in line with Trust policy.
• Specialist training and experience in autism assessment measures e.g. Autism Diagnostic Observation schedule (ADOS).
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist therapies in specific groups e.g. people with additional disabilities and supporting distressed behaviours.
• Extensive use, and knowledge of, RiO systems.

Experience

• Significant postgraduate experience in a relevant setting, such as Community services, or Acute based Neurodivergence teams.
• Substantial experience of management and supervising others in a clinical context.
• Experience of specialist clinical assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings.
• Experience of teaching, training, and/or supervision.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting differences that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse, and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience of working with children and young people with neurodevelopmental conditions in mental health services, including the application of risk assessment and safeguarding procedures in this area.
• Experience of providing evidence-based interventions.
• Experience of using routine outcome monitoring.
• Experience of work within multidisciplinary team/multi-agency contexts.
• Experience in enabling service-user participation.
• Experience in managing busy workload and conflicting priorities.
• Experience of handling confidential and sensitive information in accordance with the Data Protection Act.
• Experience of operationally managing or coordinating a team of clinicians.

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.