University Hospital Southampton NHS FT
Specialist Sleep Practitioner
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Specialist Sleep Practitioner
Job Overview
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to offer a fantastic opportunity to work with us.
Please see below for detailed job description of the role.
Main duties of the job
An exciting opportunity has arisen for somebody with specialist paediatric knowledge and experience in supporting children with learning difficulties to join the paediatric neurobehavioral sleep clinic working as a sleep practitioner. You will be joining an enthusiastic multidisciplinary team in the assessment, diagnosis and management of sleep disorders in both typically developing children and those with neurodevelopmental differences.
Working for our organisation
University Hospital Southampton is one of England's largest acute teaching Trusts, offering a wide range of learning and development opportunities to support your career aspirations.
Located on the south coast with an international airport and direct rail links to London, Southampton offers an ideal setting to live and work, with the New Forest, South Downs and Jurassic Coast.
We believe that using technology wisely shows strong time management and commitment to innovation. However, personalizing your recruitment application to highlight your unique skills and experiences is crucial. Relying too heavily on generic, AI-generated content instead of drawing from your own strengths and accomplishments may lead to your application being rejected if multiple candidates present identical or similar information.
At UHS we’re committed to providing a flexible working environment where possible. Whether you are balancing family, study, or your wellbeing with your career, we want to support you so you can help our patients.
At UHS, we proudly champion individuality, recognizing that outstanding care is only possible with a diverse, inclusive team. We’re committed to creating an anti-racist, anti-discriminatory environment where everyone feels valued, safe, and empowered to make a meaningful impact in our communities. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences to join us in building a healthcare community where everyone can belong, thrive, and contribute.
About The Team
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Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We're a specialist centre for children's sleep medicine, one of only a few in the UK. We work with children aged between one and 18 with chronic sleep disorders. We have a skill mix of professionals in our service including, a respiratory, neurology and a sleep medicine consultant, one sleep fellow, two clinical nurse specialists, sleep physiologists, sleep technicians, two clinical psychologists and three existing sleep practitioners that you will be working alongside. We are a friendly, cohesive team who thoroughly enjoy working together to diagnose and treat a wide range of childhood sleep disorders including: chronic childhood insomnia parasomnias, including sleep walking and night terrors, movement disorders in sleep, circadian rhythm disorders, sleep disordered breathing, narcolepsy, Kleine-Levin syndrome and idiopathic and secondary hypersomnia. You will be joining the Sleep Practitioner team whom operate their working hours across Monday to Friday.
At present the Children’s Sleep Disorder Service are using a secure online platform to see families via video consultation. We treat families from all over the UK and we have found that this style of clinic appointment has been most welcomed by all our service users.
Our service lead Dr Vanessa Hewertson actively leads in clinical sleep medicine research and we speak at and/or attend national and international sleep medicine conferences.
Our sleep practitioner team have been involved in presenting research posters at these events. Our service also provides sleep medicine training for professionals both nationally and internationally which you will have the opportunity to contribute too and participate in alongside the rest of the team.
What You’ll Do
Your main role in the service:
- Support lead clinicians in sleep assessment clinics in either the online video consultation format or face to face children’s outpatient settings (when deemed appropriate).
- Hold a caseload of thirty patients with chronic childhood insomnia which has resulted in significant sleep problems impacting on daily functioning.
- Create individualised sleep intervention programmes and work closely with your caseload of families using telephone and video consultation follow up appointments.
- Attend monthly caseload supervision with the senior Band 5 sleep practitioner.
- Attend the MDT weekly clinical supervision to discuss and advice on complex families.
- Attend the monthly service team meeting to discuss service development and learning from journal club.
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What We’re Looking For
You will need to have a good understanding of child development and child behaviour with a minimum of two years experience of working with children with additional needs and their families in a variety of settings.
Previous experience of working with children with autism and/or whom have sensory integration needs would be advantageous.
Previous community experience will put you in good stead for this post. Knowledge of sleep is preferred but is not a requirement as training will be provided.
You will need to be self motivated, flexible, hard working and a quick learner, as well as enjoying being part of an expanding and developing team.
Good Written And Verbal Communication Skills Are Required.
NNEB, CACHE or equivalent qualification and post registration experience in a relative specialty.
Person specification
Trust Values
- Patients First
- Always Improving
- Working Together
Qualifications, Knowledge And Experience
Essential criteria
- NNEB or equivalent qualification
- Child Development experience
- Community experience
- Experience of working in a constantly changing environment
- To be able to assess a child’s developmental age
- Excellent communication skills written and verbal
- Ability to work as part of a close-knit team
- An understanding of equality within the workforce and how it can impact on the post
- Awareness of safeguarding children
Desirable criteria
- Experience of caring for children with special needs
- Experience of working with children and parents where sleep is causing difficulties
- Understanding of children with special needs
- Understanding of and ability to work with families on behaviour programmes for sleep
- To be able to lead or work with groups of parents and professionals
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