Senior Specialist Dietitian

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust; Canterbury; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare trust in the UK seeks a Senior Dietitian to deliver nutritional care primarily for ARFID patients. The role involves managing a diverse caseload, delivering educational sessions, and supporting the development of junior dietetic staff. A degree in Nutrition & Dietetics and HCPC registration are essential, along with effective communication and clinical audit skills. Flexible working arrangements may be available.

Benefits

Flexible working opportunities

Employee assistance programme

Health and wellbeing support

Qualifications

• Minimum of 2 years post registration experience in Dietetics.
• Registered or eligible to register with Health & Care Profession Council (HCPC).
• Experience in Adults and CAMHs Eating Disorders.

Responsibilities

• Manage a diverse caseload of ARFID patients.
• Deliver educational groups to stakeholders.
• Support junior dietetic staff and students.

Skills

Effective communication

Clinical audit participation

Knowledge of nutrition and dietetics

Education

Degree/diploma in Nutrition & Dietetics or equivalent

NVQ level 2 or equivalent literacy and numeracy

Tools

IT skills

Job description

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity to join an established and specialised dietetic team within The All-Age Eating disorder service and work collaboratively with a local general adolescent mental health unit. The role will predominately focus on the delivery of nutritional care for both adult and child ARFID patients, but opportunities to learn and work across all diagnosable eating disorders will be encouraged.

Our team is committed to delivering the highest quality of care, enabling our service users to have autonomy and choice in their recovery. We achieve this through regular developmental opportunities, journal reviews and twice monthly CPD, delivered both by dietitians and the wider MDT.

While experience in mental health is advantageous for the candidate, we also encourage applications from those with other transferable skills. You should be adaptable, enjoy variety, and demonstrate the ability to work autonomously as well as collaboratively. This role also includes contributing to audits and research, developing innovative approaches to care, and supporting the recruitment, training, and development of junior dietetic staff and students.

The role is full-time, though part‑time hours will be considered.

Main duties of the job

• Work under the operational guidance of the Dietetic Lead and Advanced Dietetic Practitioner, with support from the ARFID Operational lead to develop and enhance your dietetic skills in eating disorders.
• Manage a diverse caseload across community and inpatient settings, predominately with ARFID patients and General Adolescent Mental Health.
• Provide care across various outpatient sites within Kent, with opportunities for agile working.
• Deliver educational groups and attend regular meetings with internal and external stakeholders.
• Support our student and apprenticeship training programmes and support junior members of staff assigned to each pathway within the team.

Working for our organisation

Our Values 2025 - 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co‑produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.

• We are kind.
• We are respectful.
• We work together with our communities.

These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.

Starting with NELFT

NELFT places a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers, and attend a number of drop‑in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached Job description for full description of main responsibilities within the role as a Senior dietitian.

Certificates of Sponsorship

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points-based system. When calculating the basic salary for sponsorship, HCAS (High‑Cost Area Supplement) is not included to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.

Use of AI

Please see attached document regarding acceptable use of AI during the recruitment process.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• NVQ level 2 or equivalent standard of literacy and numeracy ✓ Degree/ diploma in Nutrition & Dietetics or equivalent ✓ A minimum of 2 years post registration experience in Dietetics ✓ Registered or eligible to register with Health & Care Profession Council (HCPC)

Experience

Essential criteria

• Evidence of Post Graduate training ✓ Behavioural Change and Motivational interviewing training or be willing to undertake ✓ Relevant clinical experience in Adults and CAMHs Eating Disorders

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• An awareness of NHS priorities ✓ Knowledge of legislation in relation to the service user group and mental health. ✓ Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist Dietician and assessment methodologies. ✓ Excellent knowledge of IT and IT skills

Skills

Essential criteria

• Demonstrate evidence of up-to-date knowledge of nutrition and dietetics and its application to Adult and CAMHs eating disorders.
• Participation in clinical audit and understanding of how audit can improve service delivery.
• Well‑developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by professional organisation.

Benefits

• A long‑standing and award‑winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans, reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email [e-mail].

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

As part of our recruitment process, we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same.

Applicant requirements

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.

Documents to download

• Job description (PDF, 448.6KB)
• Candidate Recruitment Pack (PDF, 671.2KB)
• Acceptable Use of AI in Recruitment (PDF, 3.9MB)