Dietetic Assistant

TN United Kingdom; Wakefield; On-site; GBP 22,000 - 26,000; Full time

Job summary

An exciting opportunity for motivated individuals to join the Dietetic team as a Band 4 Dietetic Assistant at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust. This role involves providing nutritional support and working closely with patients in various settings, including homes and care facilities. The ideal candidate will have a strong interest in nutrition and health care, with the potential to train as a Dietitian in the future. The position offers a supportive environment with opportunities for professional development and a commitment to high standards of care.

Benefits

NHS pension plan

Generous holiday allowance

Employee health and wellbeing services

Onsite nurseries

Cycle to work scheme

Flexible working options

Career progression

Qualifications

• Significant experience in nutrition delivering care.
• Experience working in a health care environment.
• Experience in supervising others.

Responsibilities

• Support Dietitians in managing patients in the community.
• Conduct telephone reviews for outpatients.
• Work across Wakefield Place providing specialist dietetic services.

Skills

Nutrition

Teamwork

Communication

IT Skills

Education

GCSE level A-C English and Maths

Foundation Degree in Health and Social Care

Tools

Excel

Word

Job description

Social network you want to login/join with:

For further information please contact Jennifer Fairbrother, Clinical Lead for Home Enteral Feeding or Nicola Godley Clinical Lead for Paediatrics 01924543580.

About the role

An exciting opportunity has arisen within Nutrition and Dietetic Services at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust for motivated individuals to join the Dietetic team as Band 4 Dietetic Assistant. The post is ideal for an individual with an interest in nutrition and health care, especially those who may want to train as a Dietitian in the future.

Mid Yorkshire NHS Teaching Trust has been awarded new funding to implement and provide a dietetic-led Off-FP10 service for enteral (HEF) and oral nutritional support (ONS) across Wakefield Place. Working in partnership with Wakefield Health and Care Partnership and the ICS, this service will ensure all patients requiring nutritional support are referred to and reviewed/monitored by the dietetic team. This new development will provide a patient-centred, needs based service, which will allow seamless and more timely care for community patients who may require nutritional support intervention. The aim of the new service is to stop inappropriate prescribing of ONS (in line with NHS England intentions), ensure all patients receive timely and appropriate dietetic intervention and provided regular and ongoing training to all care homes across Wakefield Place. The service also aims to reduce health inequalities by ensuring improved access to dietetic support for all patients, regardless of location.

The service has been commissioned on a permanent basis, so we are looking to recruit into all areas including qualified dietitians, dietetic assistants and a new admin team.

These exciting new posts will support the band 7 in implementation of the service, while maintaining their own clinical caseloads. They will be part of a team that also includes band 5s, band 3s and admin. There are three band 4 posts available working in the following teams: Paediatric, Home Enteral Feeding and hospital outpatients. Please indicate your preference on your application form. Post-holders will work across Wakefield Place, providing a specialist dietetic service for patients with nutritional support needs, both in their own homes and in Care Homes. This may be through face-to-face contacts or telehealth and may include presentations to Care Home staff. The initial work will be to scope ONS prescribing across Wakefield, stopping or amending inappropriate prescriptions, as required.

The post-holders will be based in Wakefield Community but may be required to attend meetings at one of the 3 hospital sites in Wakefield (Pinderfields), Dewsbury and Pontefract. The post-holders may also work remotely for part of the week.

When applying for these posts it is essential that you read the job description and person specification. Use the “supporting information” space on the application form to demonstrate how your skills, knowledge and previous experience meet the job description requirements.

There are three full time permanent posts and will be based at either Pinderfields Hospital or Dewsbury Hospital but with some requirement to work cross-site as and when required. The main remit of the post will be supporting the Dietitians in the management of patients in the community for adult and/or paediatrics; this could include reviewing patients and undertaking telephone reviews for outpatients/telehealth clinics. The adult caseload will be based around nutritional support and malnutrition; the paediatric caseload may involve nutritional support; home enteral feeding; food allergies/intolerance.

The dietetic department is fully committed to CPD and clinical supervision. As we take A, B and C students from Leeds Beckett University, the post holders will also be expected to support our student training programme.

Interviews will be held on a face to face basis only.

Key requirements

Qualifications

• Obtained an educational level of GCSE level A-C English and Maths or equivalent.
• Minimum Foundation Degree in Health and Social Care or 60 credits level 4.
• Care certificate

Experience

• Significant experience in nutrition delivering care and working in a health care and people centred environment.
• Experience working as part of a team.
• Experience in supervising others at work.
• Previous experience in NHS setting.
• Experience of the impact of health and nutrition on lifestyle.
• Previous experience of working with children or in a paediatric setting.

Knowledge and Awareness

• Awareness of own limitations. Able to escalate to a qualified member of staff any concerns regarding patient care or risk.
• Experience of supervising others, and allocating appropriate workloads.
• Evidence of competence in patient assessment skills.
• Evidence of specialist extended skills and competencies related to nutrition.

Skills and Abilities

• Able to present information, written and orally in an accurate clear and logical manner.
• Able to recognise when escalation to a registered professional is required.
• Competent IT skills e.g. use Excel and word.
• Ability to organise and prioritise workload to support autonomous working.
• Ability to record accurately in patient notes
• Able to work as part of a team
• Ability to prioritise workload
• Able to educate patients and colleagues within scope of role.
• Able to implement and evaluate treatment.

Personal Attributes

• Confident, compassionate and caring nature
• Reliable and Honest
• Self-motivated
• Flexible, adaptive and creative
• Motivation to learn and develop.

Other

• Able, with appropriate support, to work in an emotionally demanding environment.
• Must have full driving licence and access to a car for work purposes

Be part of MY team

We are an acute trust caring for over one million people in Wakefield and Kirklees. Our 10,000 staff work in patients’ homes, the community, and our three hospitals in Pontefract, Dewsbury, and Pinderfields (Wakefield). We prioritise our people and values so we can deliver the best possible care to patients. Our team is friendly, passionate, and innovative, always seeking better ways to work.

We support work-life balance and foster a diverse, inclusive environment where everyone belongs. Our staff networks offer safe spaces to share ideas and concerns so we can increase awareness and appreciation of equality, diversity, and inclusion. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and especially encourage members of the LGBTQ+ community, ethnic minority groups, and people with disabilities or neurodivergence to apply, as they are currently underrepresented in the Trust.

If you value caring, high standards, improvement, and respect, join the MY team to make a difference every day.

Application guidance:
We understand that more applicants are using AI technology to help with their applications. While these tools can be useful, they cannot fully capture your skills, knowledge, and experience. It’s important that you personalise your application. Relying solely on AI is not recommended, as it may reduce your chances of success. Our screening process is thorough, so if you have used AI, please make sure to disclose this on your application form.

• Access to the NHS pension plan
• Generous holiday allowance of 27 days plus bank holidays, increasing with 5 and 10 years of service
• Exceptional employee health and wellbeing services
• Extensive benefits and support, including:
• Onsite nurseries and childcare salary sacrifice scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Car lease salary sacrifice scheme
• Working carers support and advice, carers network and carers passport
• Flexible working options and family and carer-friendly policies
• Established staff networks, including LGBTQ+ and Race Equality
• Career progression, training and support

Skilled worker sponsorship

You can find out more about skilled worker and health and care visas on our careers site.