Highly Specialist Autism Clinical Health Professional

Job summary

The Adult Autism Assessment Service in Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has an exciting opportunity for a registered clinician to come and join the team. The post includes focussed research and service evaluation to support the continued development and progression of the Autism Assessment Team (AAT).

Our team is dedicated and compassionate to those who are referred for an Autism Assessment and takes prides in the excellent care we provide in the Derbyshire area. The team is multidisciplinary and includes clinical psychologists, nurse practitioners, speech & language therapists and a Team Administrator and is also part of a wider Adult Neurodevelopmental Service which is continuing to develop to meet the needs of the local neurodiverse population.

In recognising the increased need for autism assessments across all populations, we are looking to review and develop how we provide the assessment service. This is an exciting time for development of new approaches to be increasingly responsive to the local population of Derbyshire.

We are seeking to recruit a Full-Time, Highly Specialist Autism Diagnostic Professional (1.0 WTE) on a 12 month Fixed Term Contract, to lead on the evaluation of service developments and increase our response to the referrals received by the team through arising recommendations to allow further progress. The post will also include the completion of specialist autism assessments and liaison with neighbouring services across Derbyshire.

Main duties of the job

We would like to invite you to come and join the team, and be part of developing the service to even greater heights.

Please consider applying if you are a trained and registered Nurse, Occupational Therapist, Speech and Language Therapist, or Clinical Psychologist.

The successful candidate will have good interpersonal, organisational and communication skills in order to engage with neuro-diverse adults suspected to be autistic, their family members and carers. This experience may have been developed whilst working with neurodiverse families accessing children's services.

We anticipate that the post holder will have had previous experience and training in a nationally recognised diagnostic tool (eg. Diagnostic Interview for Social Disorders (DISCO) or the Autistic Diagnostic Interview -Revised (ADI-R) and/or Autistic Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS)). We will not be shortlisting candidates who do not meet this requirement.

In addition, the post holder will lead with research and audit activities under the supervision of an experienced registered Clinical Psychologist.

Team administration is currently based at St Andrew's but the post holder will be required to travel to clinics throughout Derbyshire. An appropriate base will be agreed. The Service also offers flexibility regarding base vs remote working.

The post holder will need to be computer literate and able to contribute to online and telephone assessments when needed.

About us

Join 'Team Derbyshire Healthcare' and become part of a talented, compassionate and enthusiastic workforce committed to a vision of 'making a positive difference in people's lives'.

CQC rated us as 'GOOD' overall, commenting on how our colleagues "treated patients with compassion and kindness" and "felt positive and proud about working for the trust."

Professionals within Team Derbyshire Healthcare have a well established and supportive professional network with regular monthly meetings and in house CPD events.There are excellent links with local professional training courses with staff supporting the local training committees, participating in trainee selection and regularly offering training and placements to existing trainees.

Other Trust Benefits include:

• Commitment to flexible working where this is possible
• 27 days annual leave/year plus bank holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years & 33 days after 10 years' service
• Annual appraisal and commitment to ongoing training
• Generous NHS pension scheme
• Good maternity, paternity and adoption benefits
• Health service discounts and online benefits
• Incremental pay progression
• Free confidential employee assistance programme 24/7
• Access to our LGBT+ network, BAME Network and Faith Networks
• Health and wellbeing opportunities
• Structured learning and development opportunities