Nutrition and Dietetics Services Lead, Band 8c

We are excited to be looking to appoint a Head of Dietetics, which will be a new post for the organisation. We are therefore seeking someone with energy and passion for their profession, who is ready to lead our team of dedicated and caring Dietitians and Support Workers.

Here at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, we are working to support the further development of our dietetics services, recognising that this group of professionals is challenged nationally, we want the important role they play in the care of our patients to be front and centre within the care pathway. We are looking to appoint an ambitious, forward-thinking, highly skilled and compassionate Dietitian to this role and would be please to speak to anyone interested in applying.

Additional working pattern details: Flexible working arrangements available

Main duties of the job

Lead the continual development and improvement of the Nutrition and Dietetic Service, Home Enteral Feed Team (HEFT) and SWMS to provide high quality patient care.

Ensure regular, robust, and reliable reporting on all aspect of the Dietetic and Nutrition, HEFT and SWMS care provision is available.

Assist the Chief AHP in the delivery of the Nutrition & Hydration Improvement Groups objectives.

Act as the expert for nutrition and hydration for the Trust and partner organisations.

Ensure collaborative working between the Dietetic Service, the wider MDT and Gloucester Managed Services is maintained and updated as appropriate, in relation to nutrition and hydration.

The service is currently split into three main elements, the Nutrition and Dietetics service, Home Enteral Feed Team (HEFT), and Specialist Weight Management service (SWMS), numbering over 60 staff members, working across two large acute sites within inpatient, outpatients and the community.

Our Nutrition and Dietetics Service covers 8 specialties across both sites (Bariatrics, Diabetes, Gastroenterology, Oncology, Nephrology, Neurology/Stroke, Nutrition Support Team and Paediatrics). Our teams work within their specialist multidisciplinary teams to provide the best level of care to our patients we can.

The HEFT service was established in the county in 2000 and has steadily grown to be considered one of the leading HEFT services in the country. Growth has not just been in the team size, but there has been significant growth in the patient numbers and especially patient complexity. Patients are mainly seen on domiciliary visits anywhere in the county, providing they are registered with a Gloucestershire GP and is funded by the Integrated Care Board (ICB). The team has recently gained significant investment into the service from the ICB in order to grow to meet this growing demand.

Although the smaller of the three arms of the Dietetic workforce, our SWMS dietitians work together with our Clinical Psychology colleagues in a single multi-professional team, currently providing care to patients within tier 3 of this service.