Band 8B Lead Diabetes Specialist Nurse/Dietitian

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust; London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 81,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare trust in London is looking for a proactive Lead Diabetes Specialist Nurse/Dietitian to enhance diabetes services across multiple sites. This pivotal role involves delivering high-quality patient-centered care, supporting clinical teams, and driving service innovation to benefit a diverse population. Ideal candidates will have a strong nursing background with leadership experience and a commitment to improving health outcomes for diabetic patients.

Qualifications

• Relevant first degree and working towards a master’s degree.
• Advanced assessment qualification is preferred.
• Teaching experience or relevant certifications required.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate and develop specialist diabetes services.
• Provide expert clinical care, education, and support.
• Mentor junior staff and lead on audits and training.

Skills

Expert nursing care

Patient support

Clinical decision making

Education

Relevant first degree

Master’s degree (or ongoing coursework)

Teaching Certificate

Advanced assessment qualification

Job description

Our current vacancies

If you want to be part of the Royal Free London team, search our current vacancies below to find the job for you.

Band 8B Lead Diabetes Specialist Nurse/Dietitian

NHS AfC: Band 8b

Main area Diabetes Grade NHS AfC: Band 8b Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (per annum inclusive of HCAS) Job ref 391-RFL-7196849

Site Royal Free Hospital Town London Salary £70,387 - £80,465 Per annum inclusive Salary period Yearly Closing 16/06/2025 23:59

Our trust has over 17,000 staff serving 2 million patients every year. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, North Middlesex University Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This larger scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients.

Our mission is to deliver world class care and expertise in our clinical services, underpinned by world class teaching and research and we will continue to measure our progress against our five governing objectives: excellent outcomes, excellent patient and staff experience, excellent value for taxpayers’ money, being safe and meeting our external duties, and building a strong organisation.

Everyone is welcome at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME, gender equality, staff carers and people with disabilities and lived experiences to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an experienced and dynamic Lead Diabetes Nurse or Dietitian to join our progressive and multidisciplinary Diabetes and Endocrinology teams.

This is an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated professional to take a leadership role in delivering high-quality, patient-centred care to people living with diabetes across our diverse North London population.

Main duties of the job

As the Nurse/Dietitian lead, you will be responsible for the coordination and development of specialist diabetes services across all RFL sites, providing expert clinical care, education, and support to patients, families, and healthcare professionals. You will play a key role in service innovation and quality improvement, working closely with consultants, GPs, primary care teams, and community partners to ensure seamless, evidence-based care across the patient pathway.

You will also provide mentorship and leadership to junior staff, contribute to the development of clinical guidelines, and lead on audits, research, and training initiatives. The successful candidate will be passionate about improving outcomes for people with diabetes and committed to reducing health inequalities within our local communities.

Join us at The Royal Free London, where you'll be part of a world-renowned Trust committed to clinical excellence, innovation, and the wellbeing of both patients and staff.

Working for our organisation

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s biggest and most innovative trusts. Across three main hospitals, our dedicated army of staff care for over 1.6million patients, treat more than 200,000 in A&E, deliver over 8,000 babies and carry out more than 17million tests.
Our size, scale and influence offer you unrivalled career opportunities and a forward-thinking approach to working that works around your lifestyle. From flexible hours and generous benefits, to next level training, we make it easier to take your career to the top.
For more information please follow link https://www.royalfreelondonjobs.co.uk/

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Main Duties:

• To line manage and lead Diabetes nursing and dietitian services across the trust and to support integrated care teams with specialist advice
• To enhance joint working between hospital and community to enable patients to access their care seamlessly close to home from diagnosis to lifelong management
• To provide expert autonomous nursing care, advice and support to diabetes patients providing advanced assessment, complex clinical decision making, diagnosis and treatment including non-medical prescribing for patients referred
• To manage patients appropriately through the specialist patient pathways supporting inpatient services, outpatient and telephone clinics and MDT review
• To undertake nurse/dietitian led clinics and to be responsible for excellent standards of care to patients through the planning, co-ordinating, delivering and evaluating clinics and services including complex Type 1 and 2 Diabetic patients, ante-natal, renal, foot, transition and initiation of pump therapy clinics
• To take responsibility for own evidence based practice
• To develop and work inside clear advance practice policies and evidence based guidelines to support the service
• To lead the multi-disciplinary team, providing specialist education and advice to patients ensuring provision of NICE recommended structured education to support safe diabetes care and self-management programmes.
• To assist in the development of standards of care for diabetes care across the trust with a specific focus on education and teaching for healthcare professionals and to act as an expert nursing resource
• To provide formal training to other health care professionals on diabetes care across the trust and in primary care
• To manage patients appropriately across the patient pathway ensuring an efficient and cost effective model to improve patient experience and lifelong management To work alongside the diabetes and endocrine leadership team in ensuring world class care standards, governance, education, training and support for service delivery across the whole diabetes pathway to meet local needs.
• To act as a visible role model and expert practitioner, to provide line management and professional leadership to clinical nurse specialists within speciality
• To support the advancement of nursing and dietitian practice.
• To participate in and chair the trust-wide advanced practice specialist groups.

Person specification

Qualifications

• • Relevant first degree and working towards a master’s degree or evidence of ongoing relevant courses associated with Diabetes/ Endocrine
• • Appropriate teaching certificate or extensive teaching experience (DAFNE)
• • Evidence of professional/ management/ leadership development
• • Advanced assessment qualification

Personal Qualities and Attributes

• • Ability to problem solve and prioritise work to deadlines
• • Ability to establish collaborative working relationships with patients, carers and other members of the team
• • Ability to reflect, question and evaluate own practice.
• • To be flexible and approachable.

Getting vaccinated, and getting a booster, remains the best defence against COVID-19.
We encourage and support staff to get COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose as and when they are eligible.

• AT* - Apprenticeship Training. Where AT* is entered next to the job title indicates that this vacancy is for an apprenticeship role.
• By applying for this role, you accept if successful, that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS.This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which aims at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers.Therefore we require you to complete your stat and Man e-learning modules prior to joining our organisation.
• If you are an EU/EEA citizen who does not have EU Settlement or Pre-Settled status, you will require a visa to work in the UK.
• Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI points based system .
• If you are offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre-employment checks youridentity and right to work documentation will be verifiedremotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk
• The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.
• The Trust will request a DBS(CRB) if post involves regulated activities. The Trust is compliant with the Disclosure and Barring Service Codes of practice and the Rehabilitation of offenders act.
• By applying for this post you are agreeing to Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.
• Please be aware of scams – unless specified above, we will only communicate with you via @recruit.trac.jobs or nhs.net e-mails and we will never ask you for any payments.

Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.

Please note:

• Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date. Therefore please apply for this post as soon as you can, if you are interested and you meet the requirements of the Person Specification
• Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification will be shortlisted for this job.
• Interview arrangements will be communicated via email so please check your email regularly following the closing date.

Please be advised that due to exceptionally high demand, all Royal Free accommodation is at full capacity and waiting lists are being held. Average waiting times are 12 months. Please do not rely on Trust accommodation when you commence your role and ensure you investigate alternative accommodation for your arrival.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.