Autism Assessor for Children and Young People - Remote (Self-Employed)
Time commitment: Ideally, candidates can provide 6-8 developmental histories per week during working hours 9am-5:30pm. Our minimum requirement is to offer at least 3 developmental histories per week.
Location: Remote
Reporting to: Neurodevelopmental Team Manager
About Paloma
Our mission is to make NHS autism and ADHD care accessible within 4 weeks and, in turn, help every child achieve their potential.
Since we launched in 2024, we have brought waits down from years to weeks. Though there is a long way to go in achieving our mission with over 500,000 children waiting for an NHS autism or ADHD assessment
We are proud that Paloma is:
- Loved by families, with 4.9 out of 5 on Google and 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot
- Led by experienced healthcare entrepreneurs Dr Mark Jenkins and Darshak Shah, with 25 years' combined experience in building NHS services
- Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered and quality-focused
- A community of passionate, mission-driven and innovative team members who challenge the status quo and test and learn from new ideas and approaches.
- In control of our own destiny, as we are profitable and backed by leading healthcare investors Triple Point and Heal Capital
- Growing fast, hiring over 100 roles in the next 12 months, giving lots of opportunities to progress
Thank you for taking the time to consider a role with us.
The Opportunity
Paloma Health’s expert clinical leadership team of Consultant Psychiatrists, Paediatricians and Clinical Psychologists has developed a new gold-standard autism assessment pathway, and our Product & Engineering team has developed our own Patient Record software system and AI tools, which allow us to offer:
- An exceptional service and timely autism assessments
- Clear strengths- and needs-based outcomes, regardless of whether an autism diagnosis is made.
- Reductions in documentation and report-writing administration for our assessor team
You will work as a member of a multidisciplinary assessment team delivering remote children’s autism assessments.
As a trusted NHS provider, we work hard to provide regular work to all of our self-employed team members
About You
You are a registered nurse, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, social worker, practitioner psychologist, or medical doctor skilled in Autism assessments.
You are someone who is:
- Comfortable working in a dynamic environment and embracing change. We regularly improve our pathways and technology based on feedback, which means there are changes you need to keep aware of.
- Excited about using modern software and AI tools in your role
- Always looking for ways to improve our family and child experience of care
Responsibilities:
- Deliver high-quality remote developmental histories (via video calls), peer MDT diagnostic decision-making (with the support of the senior clinical MDT where required) and outcome calls with families
- If you are ADOS-trained and experienced, you can request to do a combined role of developmental histories and remote child observations
- Act in accordance with our Safeguarding Policy, including conducting a risk assessment where necessary.
- Keep up to date with mandatory training and your professional qualification requirements, including CPD.
Qualifications and experience:
Required:
- Professional registration as any of
- Psychologist, including Clinical Psychologist, Counselling Psychologist, and Educational Psychologist (HCPC)
- Occupational Therapist (HCPC)
- Speech and Language Therapist (HCPC)
- Nurse, including Mental Health and Learning Disability Nurse (NMC)
- Social Worker (Social Work England)
- Medical Doctor (GMC)
- Completion of a recognised ADOS-2 course is required for NMC, HCPC and, Social Work England registered applicants. Clinical Psychologists and medical doctors will be considered without having completed ADOS-2.
- At least 6 months of experience in children and young people's autism diagnostic assessments with specific knowledge including:
- A sound understanding of co-occurring conditions and differentials.
- Ability to make a diagnostic formulation and recommendation
- Where cases are outside of your competencies and need to be escalated to a senior clinician
- Writing concise, client-centred clinical reports that include a strengths and needs profile.
- Good time management skills, including delivering client reports within set timeframes
- High-quality parent and child-facing communication skills
- Enhanced DBS with barred list check (as you will be working with children)
Desirable:
- Formal training in autism developmental histories e.g. ADI-R
- Experience in conducting risk assessments within an autism assessment service
- Evidence of Safeguarding training (Level 3 and above)
Why join Paloma?
You will be part of a mission-driven organisation that’s transforming access to Autism and ADHD Assessments in England. We offer:
- A strong and positive culture that prioritises team building and transparency. This includes protected time and budget for self-employed team connection and learning.
- Competitive rates for each completed developmental history and family feedback, and for each completed child observation.
Equality & Diversity
Paloma Health is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and throughout the application process.
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
Keeping our staff and the families we serve safe is a top priority. As part of our pre-employment checks, you may be asked to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Depending on your role within the business, this will be at either an Enhanced, Standard, or Basic level.
Application process
Please apply via our website. We understand that applying for a new job requires significant effort, and we appreciate the time you put into it and look forward to reviewing your application.
