Tamsin Newlove-Delgado
Current Position: Associate Professor in Child Public Mental Health and Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine
Research Field: Children and young people’s mental health
Why did you decide to undertake clinical academic training and what pathway have you taken so far?
I initially began training in child psychiatry, before switching to public health and my experience in clinical practice raised lots of questions that I wanted to answer. Whilst training in an ADHD clinic, I was curious about what happened to the children we were treating when they got older and left children’s services – this led directly to my longstanding academic interest in transition from child to adult services and in young people with ADHD. At the time, I was also lucky enough to work with Professor Tamsin Ford, who was based in Exeter at the time (now in Cambridge). She gave me huge encouragement to think about a clinical academic career, and I was able to get involved in a small way with many of her projects.
However, it was only once I’d started my public health training that I took up my first formal clinical academic training post as a locally funded lecturer, which gave me time to work up an application for an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship to complete a PhD at Exeter. Following my NIHR DRF, I then undertook an Academic Clinical Lecturer post, also at Exeter, to gain some postdoctoral experience and complete my public health training. After gaining my CCT, I applied for three different fellowships, finally being successful with winning an NIHR Advanced Fellowship in 2019 to study time trends in children and young people’s mental health. Around the same time, I was appointed as a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Exeter. Alongside my university post, I also hold an Honorary Consultant position with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, which enables me to maintain my GMC specialist registration.
Why did you choose to conduct your clinical training at the University of Exeter and what are some of the highlights?
I undertook both my training in psychiatry and in public health in the South West. The South West Public Health Training Scheme puts a strong emphasis on academic training, with every registrar being allocated a dedicated academic supervisor at an academic institution. Mine was Professor Ken Stein at Exeter, who alongside Professor Ford, was instrumental in encouraging and supporting me to develop a clinical academic career. So, the people were one of the key reasons I chose Exeter, as well as the feeling of community. The Medical School is not so large that you feel lost, and senior colleagues have always taken a genuine interest in mentoring and supporting my career. Another reason was the real sense of possibility in an institution which has been expanding and developing its reputation – there were plenty of opportunities to pursue my interests and to meaningfully contribute to the direction of child mental health research at Exeter.
What challenges have you faced during your clinical academic training and how have you overcome these?
I think the most difficult stage was the end of my specialty training and attempting to line up the next steps post-ACL. At that point I had also had two fellowship rejections, one from Wellcome and one from MRC, so my confidence was also a bit dented! I would say that being persistent was key to eventual success, as was talking to people and being open about the challenges. Both the public health training scheme and the University were really supportive and helpful in trying to negotiate this tricky transition.
What impact has clinical academic training had on your career and what are your next steps?
Clinical academic training was transformative in terms of my career intentions. Without my initial locally funded lecturer post and subsequent NIHR funded posts I would have ended up doing something completely different. I really enjoy the varied work that I have as a clinical academic at Exeter and have a whole range of goals I want to work on over the next couple of years. For example, I am working on a large grant application to improve the health of young people with ADHD. I have also recently taken over as clinical lead for public health teaching in the Medical School. In my role as an academic supervisor and lead for integrated academic training, I am also keen to support our ACFs and ACLs with their next steps!
What advice would you give to an aspiring clinical academic?
Try and work with people that encourage and support you and make you feel inspired and challenged in a good way. Excellent advisors and supervisors are important, but also a good peer and near-peer network can really help in difficult times.
