Senior ADHD and Autism Assessor for Children

Job responsibilities

Time commitment: Between 3-5 days per week (0.6-1 FTE)

Location: Remote

Reporting to: Neurodevelopmental Team Manager

About Paloma

In 2024, our founders, Mark and Darshak, were shocked to find that children needing an NHS autism or ADHD assessment were waiting 4-10 years for these assessments. Delayed assessments result in children being more likely to develop mental health conditions and fall behind in education. Furthermore, the much-needed pre/post-assessment support (outside of ADHD medications) is typically not funded by the NHS.

These long waits have built up due to increased recognition and understanding of neurodevelopmental conditions and a lack of investment and innovation within the NHS to meet the growing demand.

Mark and Darshak, with their 25 years of combined NHS experience, including building services that have treated over 1,000,000 patients in obesity & ophthalmology, founded Paloma to change this. Our mission is to make NHS autism and ADHD assessments and care accessible within 4 weeks of a GP referral, and, in turn, help every child achieve their potential.

As of May 2026, we have successfully reduced waits to 3 months by;

• Taking a product-first approach to redesign the care pathway to give families a more consumer-like experience of care

• Our in-house product, engineering and AI team building our own autism and ADHD specific electronic patient record and AI documentation tool to free clinicians from their significant documentation burden to re-focus on supporting families

• Investing in expanding the clinician workforce and upskilling them in new ways of working.

We are proud that Paloma is:

• Loved by families, with 4.9 out of 5 Trustpilot and Google ratings

• Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered and quality-focused

• Clinically-led, with a team of 130 people, including over 80 clinicians supporting families through their assessment journey. We are hiring 100+ more roles over the next 12 months.

• A community of passionate, mission-driven and innovative team members who challenge the status quo and test and learn from new ideas and approaches.

• Backed by leading healthcare investors Triple Point and Heal Capital

Whats next?

• Whilst we have reduced wait times, it is estimated that up to 500,000 children are still waiting for an NHS autism or ADHD assessment. We wont rest until this comes down.

• We want to build new services to support families and children diagnosed with autism or ADHD who feel lost after their assessments when the NHS is no longer there for them.

The Opportunity

Are you an innovative clinician working in children and young peoples autism and ADHD assessments, excited to use software and AI tools that enhance the assessor, child and family experience of care? This role is for you!

We are not a standard autism and ADHD assessment service; we:

• Have built our own technology & AI tools to gather information from families, and support your documentation, so you can focus on childrens needs

• Have Clinical Specialists, who are a senior clinician who works alongside you to ensure all of our assessments are multidisciplinary in line with NICE guidance.

• Offer an integrated ADHD prescribing service led by our Prescribing Team, ensuring families can get fast access to ADHD medications where required

Your role is to deliver a fantastic assessment pathway for children who have been referred for both Autism and ADHD assessments.

We commit to supporting your development and well-being, including:

• The Paloma Clinical Academy programme supports all clinicians at all stages of their careers to develop (e.g. to our Senior Assessor role) and cross-skill (e.g. in autism)

• Regular clinical supervision

• 1 protected day per month for assessor team training, Continuing Professional Development (CPD), and reflection.

• Quarterly development conversations with clear career progression pathways.

• Clear weekly timetables that support a role mix across appointments, documentation, development, and team building.

About you

You are a registered nurse, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, social worker or practitioner psychologist skilled in both childrens autism and ADHD assessments.

You want to be part of an always-learning environment that embraces software and AI tools, and help us go further and faster with your positive, collaborative attitude.

Responsibilities:

• Deliver high-quality Childrens Autism and ADHD Neurodevelopmental Assessments

• Act in accordance with our Safeguarding Policy, including conducting a risk assessment where necessary.

• Keep up to date with the mandatory training, Continuing Professional Development and professional registration requirements of your professional background.

• Share ideas for continuing to improve Palomas software tools that ensure high-quality, safe, and efficient assessments

Qualifications and experience:

Required:

• By background, you are either a:

• NMC registered Nurse

• HCPC Registered Speech and Language Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Arts Therapist, or Practitioner Psychologist

• Social Work England Registered Social Worker

• You have at least 4 years of experience in delivering Childrens Autism and ADHD assessments, including:

• Having a sound understanding of typical development through life stages, co-occurring conditions, and differentials.

• Have a good understanding of normal levels of attention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity in ...