Senior Neurodevelopmental Practitioner

Job responsibilities

For full job description, please see attached supporting documents.

KEY RESULT AREAS:

The Kirklees Neurodevelopmental Assessment Team offer diagnostic assessments for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to children and young people under the age of 18.

The postholder will:

Provide highly specialist skills and expertise, specialist clinical assessment, diagnostic conclusions, and associated recommendations and support to children and young people who have, or may have, neurodevelopmental differences / disorders.

Work autonomously and collaboratively within the MDT.

Providing consultation and teaching for other agencies/professionals.

Provide supervision, mentorship, consultation and training to other staff within the team.

Provide clinical support to the team manager.

Promote safeguarding and the welfare of children and young people.

Provide a lead role in the further development of the neurodevelopmental service alongside the team manager and clinical lead.

Take a leading role in the planning and implementation of agreed clinical audit/ research and/ or quality improvement projects, including outcome monitoring of clinical services.

This job description is an outline of the main duties of the post. The post-holder will be required to undertake other duties commensurate with the grade as directed.

The content of this post will be reviewed in consultation with the post-holder when necessary and in line with the service developments.

1.1Care/service/function provision:

The post holder will work autonomously within their professional guidelines and exercise responsibility in accordance with the Trust Policies and procedures.

The post-holder will have highly developed skills and knowledge in providing diagnostic assessments for Autism and ADHD in children and young people under the age of 18.

The post holder will assess the needs of children and their carers based on the analysis of highly complex facts and situations and where situations may be highly emotive. The clinical assessment will include gathering appropriate historical and developmental information from the family, conducting highly specialist clinical observations of the child or young person and obtaining relevant information from other agencies.

The post holder will complete diagnostic assessment reports and ensure clear documentation in all appropriate case notes, sharing assessments and information with the family and all relevant professionals.

The post holder will undertake highly specialised risk assessments regarding a young persons behaviours or mental health where necessary.

The post holder will provide families with recommendations following the assessment appropriate to the child/young persons needs and will signpost or refer on as necessary

The post-holder will communicate highly complex information regarding the diagnostic assessment in an empathic and supportive way using the highest level of interpersonal skills in situations which can be highly emotional and contentious Service users and families may have difficulty or be reluctant to understand what is communicated to them.

The post holder will provide clinical supervision, consultation, mentoring and training to other clinicians within the team.

The post holder will take into account issues of confidentiality and the consent.

The post holder will liaise with external agencies, e.g. Education, Social Services and Paediatric Services as required.

The post holder will actively promote user/carer involvement in all aspects of care planning/delivery whilst respecting the rights, capabilities and wishes of the individuals concerned.

The post holder will apply a sound knowledge of safeguarding children and guidelines in clinical work.

The post-holder will identify and undertake R and D activity, where appropriate, and be responsible for regular audit projects/service evaluations and for the development of research projects in line with evidence based practice.

The post-holder will deliver and supervise others to participate in audit pertaining to their specialist area ensuring agreed results are implemented.

The post holder will provide clinical teaching, training and supervision to students on placement whilst maintaining close links with higher education institutions.

The post holder will provide teaching and training to multi-agency services both statutory and voluntary on highly specialist subjects if required.

The post holder will be committed to a quality approach for patient care.

The post-holder will demonstrate the ability to deal with very high emotional demands when dealing with traumatic information.

The post holder will demonstrate the ability to deal with very high levels of emotional distress from young people and their families/carers.

The post-holder will demonstrate high levels of concentration and provide sustained effort when completing complex neurodevelopmental assessments and subsequent report writing.

We are aware that an increasing number of applicants are using AI technology to generate responses on NHS Job application forms.Over reliance on AI-generated content in application forms is strongly discouraged and we will conduct a thorough screening process before selecting candidates to progress to the next stage. If you are using AI to enhance your application, please disclose this in your NHS Jobs application form.

Experience

Essential

• Extensive experience in conducting assessment of autism and/or ADHD.
• Substantial post qualification experience, some of which must be working with Children, young people and their carers in a mental health or other complex care setting.
• Experience of delivering training to others.
• Experience of working in different cultural contexts.
• Knowledge and experience of working with Equality and Diversity.
• Multidisciplinary team working.
• Inter-agency liaison and consultation.
• Experience of providing highly specialist advice and supervision to other professionals.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and guidance for working with children, young people, mental health and safeguarding.
• Extensive experience in assessment and risk management and ability to implement evidence-based practice.
• Advanced experience of safeguarding children and young people.

Desirable

• Experience of conducting service evaluations, research or audit.

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Able to work autonomously and as part of a team.
• Commitment to multi-agency approach/working.
• Ability to work and make decisions under pressure.
• Calm, confident, innovative, creative and assertive.
• Ability to make and lead decisions under pressure/crisis situations.
• Willingness to be flexible and adaptable in accordance with changing service priorities.
• Commitment to challenging discrimination and improving accessibility of services.
• Ability to cope calmly in a crisis.
• To demonstrate good self-care and encourage the same in team members.
• A Current driving licence and access to a car during the working day is essential (reasonable adjustments will be considered for any applicants who are unable to drive due to a disability).
• To have integrity, be honest, open, transparent and respectful.

Special Knowledge & Skills

Essential

• Highly specialised, comprehensive knowledge of child development, attachment theories and a broad knowledge regarding the range of mental health and developmental difficulties children can experience that may be co-morbid to neurodevelopmental conditions.
• Extensive knowledge of neurodevelopmental assessment and diagnostic procedures and relevant NICE guidelines.
• Excellent verbal and communication skills.
• Ability to manage own caseload and to be a self-reliant and autonomous practitioner.
• Excellent negotiation skills, and problem solving skills.
• Customer service orientation.
• Excellent record keeping and report writing skills to include care planning and risk assessments.
• IT skills.

Training

Essential

• Training in specific neurodevelopmental assessments (e.g., ADOS, QB, ADI-R, DISCO).
• Post qualification training in identified portfolio i.e neurodevelopmental conditions.
• Proven relevant continuous professional development.

Physical Attributes

Essential

• Ability to undertake the duties and demands of the post. A satisfactory sickness record over the previous 2 years (subject to the need to act with fairness and equality of opportunity, particularly where the sickness is related to a disability and/or pregnancy).

Qualifications

Essential

• Relevant professional qualification, e.g. nursing, or other professional allied to medicine, Dip SW or equivalent.
• Membership of professional body.
• Post graduate Masters level degree qualification or working towards this level of qualification in a relevant field
• or
• evidence of professional knowledge acquired through degree, supplemented by experience, specialist training and short courses equivalent to a Masters degree level.

Desirable

• Leadership, improvement or change management training.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).