Job overview

An excellent opportunity has arisen to join the Oxleas Adult Autism Service as we seek to appoint an Assistant Psychologist to be part of our multidisciplinary team, working with autistic adults who do not have learning disabilities.

The Oxleas Adult Autism Service supports adults with autism who either do not have a learning disability or have mild learning disabilities that do not meet the threshold for LD services. The service is comprised of two distinct streams: 

• Diagnostic Assessment Service
• Autism Partnership Programme (APP) 

The Diagnostic Assessment Service provides highly specialized diagnostic assessments for adults with suspected autism who may also present with complex mental health and psychiatric comorbidities.

The APP offers clinical specialist support to Community Mental Health Teams, Acute Care/psychiatric wards, and other local teams working with autistic individuals who are admitted to or at risk of admission to acute care.

We are seeking to recruit one assistant psychologist for the APP stream only.

Main duties of the job

In the APP, the post holder will collaborate with a wide multidisciplinary team and diverse clinical stakeholders to deliver comprehensive and systemic support to clients' care.

This role involves close liaison with social care, community mental health teams, acute care teams, and other professional colleagues and partner agencies through consultation, attendance at multi-professional meetings, and contributing to training.

The post involves supporting assessment of clients’ autism needs and formulation regarding their admission to the ward, working with clients and their families, delivering autism-adapted interventions such as psychoeducation, and writing discharge reports.

Working for our organisation

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families.  This is strengthened by our new values:

• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Care