Job summary
Consultant in Community Paediatrics and Medical Advisor for Adoption Haringey.
Whittington Health are seeking to employ a Consultant in Community Paediatrics to join the Haringey community team and to fill the role of Medical Advisor for Adoption Haringey. This is an eight PA post. There is no out-of-hour on call commitment attached to this post.
We have a strong Children Looked After medical team with experienced nurses and good administrative support. The department offers excellent experience and training in neurodisability and safeguarding with the flexibility to offer the right candidate a bespoke timetable that reflects their interests.
If you have experience in Community Paediatrics and working with Children Looked After, we would like to hear from you. Excellent clinical paediatric skills and written and verbal communication are essential, as is strong team working.
The post holder will be based at the all-new child development centre in the vibrant Seven Sisters area in Haringey and will work closely within a multidisciplinary team to provide holistic care to children with a wide range of special needs and disabilities.
Interview date: 16 October 2024.
Main duties of the job
Please see the full Job Description and the Person Specification for further details about the job role.
About us
Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trustbelieves that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Duties of the post
Medical Advisor for Adoption
The post holder will work with the well-established Children in Care team currently based at Tynemouth Road Health Centre. The team is comprised of the Named Doctor for Children Looked After, Designated Doctor for Children Looked After, Designated Nurse for Children Looked After, three specialist nurses and two administrators.
The Medical Advisor for Adoption involves clinical, operational and strategic roles in the provision of care of children going for includes:
1. Carrying out/supervising health assessments for children going for adoption
2. Providing an adoption medical report referring to all previous health assessments, analysing past medical health and commenting on future implications to the child.
3. Meeting prospective adopters and sharing information in a way that can be understood by a layperson and providing advice to inform adoption support plans
4. Providing a written report to the agency on the health of prospective adopters, analysing impact on childs health and wellbeing, and impact on parenting capacity of applicants.
5. Attendance at adoption (permanence) panel by reviewing all medical reports (adultsand children) on the panel agenda, identifying any issues that require specific adviceand facilitating discussion at panel.
6. Prospective adopter training. This involves teaching at the adoption preparation workshops on health issues for looked after children and the impact of trauma on development.
Details of the roles and competencies required can be found in the document produced jointly by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and Royal College of Nursing - Looked After Children: roles and competencies of healthcare staff December 2000.
Role as part of the Haringey Community Paediatric Medical Team
The post holder will contribute to the child protection rota as part of the Community Paediatrics team. This involves being the on-call consultant for safeguarding. You will also attend the weekly peer review clinical meeting as part of the senior child protection team.
The post holder will work within the neurodevelopmental service. This includes contributing to the autism diagnostic assessment, Neurodevelopmental Clinics and Special School Clinics.
Training Responsibilities
The post holder will play an active part in the supervision and training of speciality trainees working within the department. Speciality trainees rotate through the department from the North Middlesex Hospital as part of their core training. The placement is popular with trainees who feedback how much they enjoy the placement and the clinical experience they gain. There are between three and four core trainees at any time.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
7. GMC registration
8. MBBS or equivalent
9. On the GMC's Specialist Register OR within six months of CCT at time of interview or equivalent of CCT in Paediatrics or Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR) application awaiting approval
10. Level 4 Safeguarding training Valid APLS and NLS
Desirable
11. Grid training in Community Paediatrics
12. Msc/Diploma in Community Child Health or relevant subject
Experience
Essential
13. Experience in paediatrics, neurodisability, child protection, Looked After Children
14. Experience of working in multi-disciplinary team and with multi-agency partners
15. Experienced in the holistic assessment of children with complex needs and able to provide a written report detailing this information.
16. Experience of undertaking statutory health assessments of looked after children and adoption medicals.
Desirable
17. Special interest in an area in Community Child Health
18. Experience of working in multi-disciplinary team and with multi-agency partnersContribution to adoption panel or observation of adoption panel
Skills
Essential
19. High standards of clinical skills in the assessment of children referred for safeguarding concerns
20. High standards of clinical skills in the assessment of children with developmental conditions including autism
21. Sound understanding of the complex needs and outcomes of children in care and how to support them
22. Teamworking skills to work effectively in a multi-disciplinary team and with multi-agency colleagues
23. Excellent written and oral communication skills including report writing and court attendances.
Desirable
24. Evidence of effective membership on a safeguarding committee or adoption panel.
Management
Essential
25. Demonstrated good leadership skills
Desirable
26. ManagementDemonstrated good leadership skillsEvidence of holding leadership/ strategic roles
Education/Teaching
Essential
27. Commitment to learning and continuing professional development
28. Experience of teaching and provision of clinical supervision
29. Good presentation skills, evidence of presentation at local/ departmental level
Desirable
30. Evidence of commitment to training, formal teaching skills course, clinical/ educational supervision course
31. Educational supervision accreditation
32. Presentations at national or international meetings
Research/Audit
Essential
33. Completed audits or quality improvement projects that have had a positive impact on clinical practice
34. Understanding of research methodology and ability to apply research findings in clinical practice
Desirable
35. Publication in peer reviewed journals
36. Evidence of completion of research and publication (or in process)