Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

Band 7 Lead Dietitian - Salisbury

The closing date is 26 May 2025

Job summary

We are looking for an experienced Dietitian to join our trust Wide Nutrition and Dietetic Service for Maternity Cover.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead a Dietetic team within BaNES, Swindon and Wiltshire. The post is suitable for a highly motivated dietitian, with strong communication skills, knowledge and experience of working within MDTs.

You will manage a clinical caseload of Adults with Mental Health conditions in an inpatient setting.

You will have the opportunity to supervise and mentor student dietitians. We offer departmental and personal CPD time to support your development. We are committed to the development of evidence-based practice, and you will be supported in attending relevant professional networking meetings, interest groups and CPD opportunities.

You should have significant post-qualification experience and have worked within a range of settings. You need to be enthusiastic and interested about working with older adults and be keen to continue your professional development within this diverse and specialist field of work.

This is an excellent opportunity to develop leadership skills alongside a clinical caseload specialising in mental health.

Main duties of the job

The Lead Mental Health Dietitian for BSW (Bath and N. East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire) is responsible for the provision of a highly specialist dietetic service for patients across BSW.

The post holder will manage a complex and diverse workload in the hospital setting and is responsible for clinical decisions in multi-disciplinary settings.

The post holder will line manage a small dietetic team across BSW.

The post holder will be required to develop and deliver pathways and protocols for service users across BSW in line with Trust-wide dietetic pathways.

About us

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Date posted

12 May 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 7

Salary

£46,148 to £52,809 a year pro rata

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

5 months

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

342-BR081-0525

Job locations

Fountain Way

Wilton Road

Salisbury

SP2 7FD

Job description

Job responsibilities

CLINICAL

1. To be the clinical expert in your specialist field within this setting. To be responsible for the development and provision & evaluation of a comprehensive and effective, evidence based dietetic service in the Mental Health setting

2. To have a working knowledge of national & best practice guidelines

3. To work as an autonomous practitioner. This includes working in the hospital setting and working closely with patients, carers and other members of the multidisciplinary team.

4. To undertake detailed dietetic assessments (some highly complex in specialty area) to include: calculation of nutritional requirements, formulation of nutritional goals based on the interpretation of biochemical, anthropometric, physiological and psychosocial parameters. To monitor and change treatment plans based on new evidence.

5. To provide highly complex nutritional counselling and behavioural therapies to patients where there are significant barriers to change.

6. To demonstrate clinical effectiveness using evidence based outcomes and to be able to deliver safe clinical outcomes where there is conflicting information or expert opinion differs.

7. To make recommendations to the medical and pharmacy teams on the prescription of nutritional supplements and products for patients requiring nutritional support and therapeutic diets. To work with prescribing advisors as required

8. Required to accurately use anthropometrical equipment on a regular basis for dietetic assessment and research

9. To organise, implement and evaluate group education sessions for different client groups e.g. clients, healthcare professionals

10. To actively participate in general health promotion, in line with government policies and local priorities, liaising closely with the public health departments

11. To actively participate in health promotion activities as required for the specialist area and oversee the provision a health promotion/ public health activities/ projects appropriate to the needs of the local community and in support of the Trust's health improvement priorities

12. To be responsible for the operational departmental standards and policies within your specialist area.

13. To undertake audit work within this setting to improve clinical care;

14. To maintain accurate client records and activity statistics in accordance with departmental & Trust policies and procedures

15. To ensure that targets & outcomes are set and met in line with trust and departmental objectives and contractual requirements

16. To carry out good office practice in accordance with the departments policies and procedures.

17. To work as a team member in Nutrition and Dietetics team, which may involve providing leave cover and any other duties commensurate with the post, as requested by the Head of Nutrition and Dietetics

COMMUNICATION

With Patients:1. To communicate highly complex medical and nutritional information to patients, carers and healthcare professionals in a clear and easy to understand manner.

2. To effectively engage with patients to help them understand, accept and overcome difficult diagnoses and complex dietary changes.

3. To communicate sensitively and effectively with patients and carers particularly where there are significant barriers to understanding such as mental illness, hearing/ sight impairment, cognitive impairment, behavioural problems, dementia etc.

4. To negotiate patient care plans with patients and carers, overcoming barriers to change & using persuasion and motivational interviewing techniques to achieve client compliance. Post-graduate training in Behaviour Change or similar, is required.

With Colleagues:5. To effectively communicate complex nutritional information to healthcare professionals.

6. To effectively liaise with multidisciplinary teams regarding client care and to actively participate in multi-agency work and liaise with statutory and voluntary agencies as appropriate. To work collaboratively with ward teams to maintain existing assessment standards and systems, meetingpatients needs with collaboration with Hotel Services.

7. To produce timely and accurate client related correspondence in line with local and national guidelines;

8. To communicate effectively in highly complex situations where sensitive information is to be discussed e.g. dealing with complaints to avoid escalation, client medical conditions.

9. To use negotiation & persuasion skills to manage conflict across a range of situations.

10. To present clinical and service data in a formal setting to a large group of people e.g. an invited speaker on an external accredited course

11. To support the Head of Nutrition & Dietetic Services when representing the department at internal and external forums. This involves regularly presenting service information, formulating & delivering plans to various size groups of professionals, peers, senior managers and client groups

12. To have a high level of keyboard skills and working knowledge of computer packages (e.g. excel, windows, power point & nutrition analysis software) for the production of patient and service reports and information on a daily basis.