Job summary
This is an exciting opportunity for an innovative practitioner, experienced in working with people with Autism, to lead a team of clinicians and experts by experience in providing a community based service for people referred to have an autism assessment in the London Borough of Ealing.
This is an all age service and it works closely with Child Development Team, CAMHS Neurodevelopment Team and The Adult Autism assessment service to triage all referrals for autism assessment in the borough and connect to those who have been referred to make sure that people are informed and understand their diagnostic pathway.
We are committed to waiting well, person centredness and co-production. We work together to ensure that our service is adaptive, strength based and innovates towards the needs of our diverse community.
The Autism Hub aims to be a single point of access for referrers, service users and their families.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will have a leadership and management role within the Hub to ensure that the trust policies, strategies and governance frameworks are adhered too, and that the day-to-day work is completed and audited.
The post holder is in charge of triaging referrals for autism assessments for service users of all ages and liaising with referrers, schools, clinicians and social care organisations to ensure that accurate information is then passed on to the correct diagnostic team.
The post holder insures that the experts by experience and assistant psychologist in the Hub team are working on co-produced themes which support the trust wide autism strategy and enable people on the waiting list to be orientated to their diagnostic pathway.
The Hub also plays a significant role in teaching, training and consultation, as well as signposted and directed service users to relevant and available resources.
The Hub sits alongside service users and their families whilst they are on this complex diagnostic journey.
The Hub also champions collaborative practice, trauma informed and relational, experience-sensitive paradigms.
The Hub ensures reasonable adjustments as a statutory duty and leads the way in supporting change across all organisations within its sphere of influence.
About us
West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse providers of mental health, community and social care in the UK.
Our 3,982 staff care for people in hospital and in the community, helping them to recover and go on to lead full and productive lives. We aim to be the best organisation of our kind in the country.
We provide care and treatment for more than 800,000 people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow, delivering services in the community (at home, in GP surgeries and care homes), hospital, specialist clinics and forensic (secure) units.
We'rerated good overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Together, we're committed to promoting hope and wellbeing, working with patients, service users, carers, families and partners across the communities we serve.
We are keen to ensure that our workforce reflects the community it serves, particularly in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, LGBTQ+ and experience of mental illness.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for further details about the role, responsibilities and requirements.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for further details about the role, responsibilities and requirements.
Person Specification
Experience
Essential
- Individual & group clinical work post qualification
- Experience of working in a multi-cultural service
- Experience of working in a clinical capacity with autistic people
- Experience of work in an MDT setting and communicating complex information therein
- Experience of assessing and formulating risk
- Experience and understanding of autism diagnostic services across the life span
- Experience of working with families
Desirable
- Experience of work in a community health setting
- Experience of work with interpreters
- Lived experience of Autism.
- Lived experience of mental health difficulties.
- Experience of assessing and providing therapy to children or adults with autism.
- Experience of providing therapies in a community setting
- Experience of participating in reflective practice, case formulation meetings or team debriefs
- Experience of undertaking or being part of autism diagnostic assessments.
- Experience of providing clinical and line management supervision.
Qualifications and Training
Essential
- Professional qualification in a health related field. For example, psychology, SLT, OT, nursing etc.
- Health and Care Professions Council registrant
Desirable
- Autism specific training, such as Positive Behavioural Support, sensory training.
- Training in diagnostic assessments, such as ADOS-2 or ADI-R
- Training in clinical leadership
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Specialist professional knowledge acquired through MA/MSc or equivalent level plus specialist short courses, CPD, clinical supervision of practice.
- Understanding of the barriers that people with autism may have in relation to accessing services
- Understanding of how to adapt communications and interventions to the needs of autistic individuals
- Ability to organise and prioritise caseload and other responsibilities
- Knowledge of other modalities (e.g. medical model, systemic, behavioural) sufficient to contribute to multi-disciplinary planning and liaison.
- Ability to communicate complex, sensitive and potentially contentious information to service users in a way that addresses psychological resistance and the propensity of the service users towards hostile reactions.
- To know when to raise a safeguarding concern and when it is necessary to seek immediate clinical supervision.
- Understanding of national healthcare initiatives (e.g. the recovery model, clinical governance, evidence based practice) and legislation (e.g. the Mental Health Act and the Mental Capacity Act) and their relevance to this post and to the organisation in general.
- Able to respond adaptably to rapidly changing service demands
- An ability to document clinical information in the care record in an accurate, concise and non-judgemental manner which supports a psychological understanding.
- Use IT packages - word processing, e-mail and internet, SPSS, Excel and Access
- Ability to use or learn NHS clinical systems
- Awareness of diversity of cultural norms and being able to respond to this appropriately
Desirable
- Knowledge of sensory differences in autism.
- Autism-specialist interventions, for example social stories, comic strip conversations, positive behavioural support planning.
- IT skills: e.g. Word; Excel, Photoshop.
- Knowledge of national systems in place in relation to autistic people, e.g. Dynamic Support Registers, Care and Treatment Reviews.
- Experience of developing resources to facilitate communication in autistic people, e.g. social stories, visual communication cards.
Person Specification
Experience
Essential
- Individual & group clinical work post qualification
- Experience of working in a multi-cultural service
- Experience of working in a clinical capacity with autistic people
- Experience of work in an MDT setting and communicating complex information therein
- Experience of assessing and formulating risk
- Experience and understanding of autism diagnostic services across the life span
- Experience of working with families
Desirable
- Experience of work in a community health setting
- Experience of work with interpreters
- Lived experience of Autism.
- Lived experience of mental health difficulties.
- Experience of assessing and providing therapy to children or adults with autism.
- Experience of providing therapies in a community setting
- Experience of participating in reflective practice, case formulation meetings or team debriefs
- Experience of undertaking or being part of autism diagnostic assessments.
- Experience of providing clinical and line management supervision.
Qualifications and Training
Essential
- Professional qualification in a health related field. For example, psychology, SLT, OT, nursing etc.
- Health and Care Professions Council registrant
Desirable
- Autism specific training, such as Positive Behavioural Support, sensory training.
- Training in diagnostic assessments, such as ADOS-2 or ADI-R
- Training in clinical leadership
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Specialist professional knowledge acquired through MA/MSc or equivalent level plus specialist short courses, CPD, clinical supervision of practice.
- Understanding of the barriers that people with autism may have in relation to accessing services
- Understanding of how to adapt communications and interventions to the needs of autistic individuals
- Ability to organise and prioritise caseload and other responsibilities
- Knowledge of other modalities (e.g. medical model, systemic, behavioural) sufficient to contribute to multi-disciplinary planning and liaison.
- Ability to communicate complex, sensitive and potentially contentious information to service users in a way that addresses psychological resistance and the propensity of the service users towards hostile reactions.
- To know when to raise a safeguarding concern and when it is necessary to seek immediate clinical supervision.
- Understanding of national healthcare initiatives (e.g. the recovery model, clinical governance, evidence based practice) and legislation (e.g. the Mental Health Act and the Mental Capacity Act) and their relevance to this post and to the organisation in general.
- Able to respond adaptably to rapidly changing service demands
- An ability to document clinical information in the care record in an accurate, concise and non-judgemental manner which supports a psychological understanding.
- Use IT packages - word processing, e-mail and internet, SPSS, Excel and Access
- Ability to use or learn NHS clinical systems
- Awareness of diversity of cultural norms and being able to respond to this appropriately
Desirable
- Knowledge of sensory differences in autism.
- Autism-specialist interventions, for example social stories, comic strip conversations, positive behavioural support planning.
- IT skills: e.g. Word; Excel, Photoshop.
- Knowledge of national systems in place in relation to autistic people, e.g. Dynamic Support Registers, Care and Treatment Reviews.
- Experience of developing resources to facilitate communication in autistic people, e.g. social stories, visual communication cards.
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
