Job Title: Children’s Autism Assessment Clinical Specialist

Time commitment: Full-time preferred, 0.8 FTE is possible as 32 hours per week over 4-5 days, e.g. four 8 hour days, or three 8 hour days and two 4 hour days.

Location: Either remote (within the UK) or hybrid working from our London office

Reporting to: Autism Team Manager

Clinical Supervision from: A Paloma employed Consultant Psychiatrist 

About Paloma

Mark & Darshak founded Paloma as they were frustrated that families are waiting 2-10 years for NHS children’s autism and ADHD assessments. Learn more about the crisis in NHS children’s neurodevelopmental services from this Children’s Commissioner for England here: https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/blog/childrens-commissioner-warns-of-invisible-crisis-as-delays-and-inequalities-laid-bare-among-children-with-neurodevelopmental-conditions/

Paloma’s mission is to make children’s autism and ADHD assessments and care available on the NHS within 4 weeks of GP referral. We are making this happen by redesigning care pathways, building new software & AI tools, and training the next generation of assessors.

We are growing incredibly fast to meet the need for autism and ADHD care, and we have:

• Grown our fantastic team to 90 people, and are hiring ~100 more over the next 12 months
• Raised £5m pre-seed funding from leading healthcare investors (Triple Point Ventures and Heal Capital), helping us to invest in our technology and our team
• Achieved financial sustainability

How is Paloma Health different from other Neurodevelopmental providers?

• We are clinically-led, Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered, and rigorous in recording our outcomes and family experiences.
• Our in-house product & engineering team ensures we can:
  • Give families a more consumer-like experience of healthcare
  • Free our clinicians from documentation to focus on supporting families
• Our strong culture, including transparency, a sense of community, and supporting staff career development
• The experience of our founders (Dr Mark Jenkins & Darshak Shah), who have previously built tech-enabled NHS obesity and ophthalmology services. Combined, their previous companies have treated over 1 million NHS patients in the last 15 years!
• Being backed by leading healthcare investors allows us to move fast

The Opportunity

We are seeking a passionate and experienced clinician in children’s autism assessments to act as an Autism Assessment Clinical Specialist. Your role is to clinically supervise a team of 8-10 Autism Assessors and ensure high-quality, multidisciplinary autism diagnostic decision-making within this team. 

Note that you are not the line manager for the Autism Assessor team; this role is undertaken by the Team Manager. We believe it is important to split out clinical supervision from line management to ensure the clinical supervisor can focus on clinical quality.

Your typical day will be a mixture of leading group and individual discussions of cases to ensure clear diagnostic decision-making, as well as reviewing clinical cases to ensure that clear diagnostic decisions and formulations are made. Additionally, each month, you will independently deliver a small number of developmental histories and child observations to ensure you stay close to our care pathway.  

If you have prior experience in ADHD, you can also act as a Children’s Autism and ADHD Clinical Specialist, working with a team of assessors doing a mixture of ADHD and combined autism and ADHD assessments.

If you achieve your objectives in this role and consistently make a significant positive impact at Paloma, you can be promoted from a Clinical Specialist to a Clinical Lead with time

About you

Outside of being a skilled clinician, from a cultural perspective, you are:

• Comfortable working in a dynamic environment and embracing change
• Excited about using new software and AI tools in your role
• Always looking for ways to improve our team’s working environment, and the experience of care for families that we support

Responsibilities:

• Deliver a mix of group and 1-to-1 clinical supervision to an 8-10 person autism assessor team through daily discussions.
• Lead on high-quality diagnostic decision-making within this team.
• Stay up to date with the latest clinical and government guidelines and best practices regarding children’s autism assessments.
• Each month, deliver a small number of developmental histories and observations directly to keep close to our pathway 
• Undertake all required Continuing Professional Development to maintain your professional registration (we run one development day per month to support this)

Qualifications and experience:

Required:

• Current healthcare professional registration, either with the HCPC (clinical psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists), or NMC (nurses) or GMC (paediatricians, psychiatrists and specialty doctors)
• At least 4 years of experience delivering children and young people’s autism assessments (we include both pre- and post-qualification experience) 
• Able to evidence strong autism diagnostic decision-making in children
• Evidence of strong time management skills to ensure families receive prompt outcomes
• High-quality communication skills, putting team members and families at ease

Desirable:

• At least 2 years of experience of undertaking clinical supervision with children’s autism assessors
• Able to evidence strong ADHD diagnostic decision making in children

Why join Paloma?

You will be part of a mission-driven organisation that’s transforming access to Autism and ADHD care in England. We offer:

• A strong and positive culture that prioritises staff well-being, provides clear transparency on our goals, and invests in staff training to support career development.
• Protected time and budget for team connection, learning, and community-building.
• Salary depending on clinical background and experience, starting at:
  • £75,000 for nurses, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists
  • £80,000 for clinical psychologists
  • Very competitive salaries for medical doctors, including associate specialists, Consultant Paediatricians or Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists
• Annual salary reviews, 5% employer pension, and company laptop.
• Share options in Paloma Health. We all benefit from our success!
• A unique annual leave benefits package which includes:
  • 33 days of annual leave, including bank holidays
  • Your birthday off
  • Option to buy an additional 5 days per year
  • An additional 10 days of paid sabbatical leave every three completed years of service (which means 43 days of leave in year four at Paloma!)
• Home Office Equipment Allowance, and Professional Registration Fees Allowance.
• Access to NHS discounts, including the Blue Light Card (as we are an NHS provider).

Equality & Diversity

Paloma Health is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and throughout the application process. We do not discriminate based on any protected characteristic.

Accommodations

We’re glad to accommodate candidates who need adjustments throughout the hiring process. We encourage you to be open about the adjustments you need, so we can adapt our interview process accordingly.

Safer Recruitment & Pre-Employment Checks

Paloma Health ensures that supporting people to be safe is at the heart of our work and a key priority across all areas of the organisation. As part of our pre-employment checks, you will be asked to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. As this role is patient facing, it will be an Enhanced level. We are committed to safer recruitment practices and expect all applicants to share our dedication to safeguarding. Our recruitment processes are designed to ensure we appoint individuals who are aligned with our values and who will contribute to maintaining a safe and supportive environment for everyone we work with.

Application process

Please apply via our website. We understand that applying for a new job requires a significant amount of effort, and we appreciate your time. We look forward to reviewing your application.