East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust (Cambridge)
Lead Neurodevelopmental Practitioner
Closing date: 31 May 2026
Are you passionate about improving the lives of children and young people with neurodevelopmental needs? Do you enjoy leading, inspiring and developing others while remaining clinically involved? If so, we would love to hear from you!
We are looking for an experienced Lead Neurodevelopmental Practitioner to join our Community Paediatric Service and provide compassionate, visible leadership across our neurodevelopmental pathway. In this role, you will shape and lead a skilled nursing and allied health workforce, ensuring children and families receive timely, high‑quality, evidence‑based care.
You will work closely with families, clinicians and partners, playing a key role in complex neurodevelopmental and diagnostic assessments, including ADOS. You will support and develop staff, drive service improvement, and contribute to governance, audit and quality initiatives that genuinely make a difference.
This is a varied and rewarding role where your clinical expertise, leadership skills and commitment to children with SEND will be valued and supported.
You will be a Registered Nurse or Allied Health Professional, educated to Master’s level or with equivalent experience and senior experience in community paediatrics or neurodevelopmental services.
Join us and help shape a service you can be proud of – where children, families and staff are at the heart of everything we do.
Should we receive a high number of applications, we reserve the right to close this vacancy at any point after 21 May.
Main duties of the job
Independent prescribing and ADOS training are required or a willingness to work towards them.
The post holder will be responsible for the leadership and delivery of the skill‑mix neuro‑developmental model across Cambridgeshire, including development of nursing/allied health practice and advanced nursing skills such as diagnostic assessments. The post holder will lead on the training and development needs of the team.
Operational day‑to‑day management, resource and ongoing development of the nursing/allied health team and effective leadership and clinical direction to the administrators will be required.
As an expert clinician, the post holder will support delivery of an evidence‑based commissioned service and work as part of a multi‑disciplinary team to undertake assessment and management of children attending the Community Paediatric Service.
Job responsibilities
Working closely with the Head of Service, Clinical Paediatrician, Nursing Lead, Nursing Team, Allied Health Professionals, Administrators and Community Paediatricians to improve outcomes for children and families through service redesign and integration with other providers across Cambridgeshire, ensuring delivery of a high‑quality, efficient and effective service and meeting all objectives and key performance indicators.
Instrumental in delivering improvements required by organisational obligations to improve outcomes for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND), including actions resulting from local area inspections.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
* Provide highly specialised interventions for a defined caseload and advise colleagues on care for children and young people with complex needs.
* Provide expert advice within and across professional boundaries and streamline care pathways between professionals and system partners.
* Act as a role model delivering the highest standard of clinical care without supervision while recognising own limitations to influence standards of care.
* Have a non‑medical prescribing qualification if appropriate, and practice as a prescriber as part of this role.
* Participate in all aspects of diagnostic assessments of children with neurodisability, e.g. ADOS assessments, and provide training for others.
* Effectively manage the nursing/allied health team within community paediatric services.
* Provide effective clinical leadership and direction to administrators on clinical matters.
* Promote and be involved in developing practice through research linking policy, national strategy documents and best practice statements to promote best practice.
* Develop clinical guidelines, protocols and standard operating procedures and patient information resources.
* Lead on clinical audit to support evidence‑based, safe effective care.
* Design, deliver and evaluate training programmes for skill‑mix team.
* Participate in quality visits/good practice visits using clinical expertise.
* Support governance by producing relevant reports and attending and presenting to committees and groups.
* Develop and maintain quality information, ensuring it is available and reported in line with agreed timescales for internal and external stakeholders.
* Assess and manage incidents, complaints and clinical risks.
* Support implementation of the Compassion in Practice agenda and the 6Cs values and behaviours.
* Attend all relevant mandatory training as and when required.
* Raise awareness about the importance of service provision for vulnerable children and young people with SEND within and external to the Trust.
* Promote and safeguard the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.
* Implement NICE guidance and other statutory / best practice guidelines.
* Ensure infection control and prevention.
* Contribute to the identification, management and reduction of risk within the service.
* Ensure day‑to‑day practice reflects the highest standards of governance, clinical effectiveness, safety and patient experience.
* Monitor quality and compliance with standards and demonstrate this on an ongoing basis.
* Ensure a safe and healthy environment for patients/clients, visitors and staff.
* Support the Head of Service in productivity and financial management of the clinical service.
* Support the Clinical Lead to deliver high standards of care and meet all compliance requirements such as CQC, Ofsted and contractual requirements.
Communication
Communicate with children/young people and their families/carers, including those with complex developmental difficulties, neuro‑disability or medical conditions causing developmental disorder or delay (e.g. ADHD, ASD), complex needs, and high anxiety or emotional states. Use advanced communication skills to convey difficult or unwelcome news to patients and staff when necessary. Reconcile conflicting interests and influence decisions regarding service delivery through leading meetings, identifying barriers to change. Work in partnership with child/young person and carers to enable informed choices about care and treatment. Use well‑developed change management, communication and resilience skills to effect change within the service.
Budgetary Responsibility
* Act as an authorised signatory.
* Work with Clinical Service to ensure financial targets are met.
* Collaborate with the Head of Service and Clinical Leads to develop business cases and service level agreements for service developments.
* Participate in setting yearly income targets and expenditure budgets.
Person Specification
Qualifications and Training
* Registered Nurse or Allied Health Professional
* ADOS‑trained
Experience
* Delivering multi‑disciplinary neurodisability service for children & young people
* Experience working in a senior clinical or managerial role
* Patient involvement experience within a paediatric, mental health or learning disability setting
Skills and Knowledge
* Excellent communicator and builder of relationships and networks
* Effective leadership and people‑management skills
* Collaborative working with others
* Commitment to high‑quality care and service provision
Safeguarding
* Appreciates the significance of safeguarding and interprets this accurately for all children and young people/vulnerable adults regardless of circumstances.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
Subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and requires submission for Disclosure to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust (Cambridge)
Address
The Peacock Centre, Cambridge – The Oak Tree Centre, Huntingdon
Salary
£57,528 to £64,750 per annum, pro‑rata
Contract
Permanent
Working pattern
—
Reference number
448‑CCYP‑7995514
Job locations
The Peacock Centre, Cambridge – The Oak Tree Centre, Huntingdon
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