Specialist Practitioner

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust; Essex; Remote; GBP 32,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

The Essex Eating Disorders Team within NELFT NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a committed practitioner to deliver intensive community-based support for children and young people with eating disorders. You will implement meal support, monitor physical health, and collaborate with therapists to provide Family-Based Therapy within the Intensive Support Pathway.

Travel across Essex, Southend, and Thurrock is required to visit hospital settings and support families in their homes, ensuring continuity

Responsibilities

• Provide intensive community-based support to children and young people with eating disorders and their families as part of the ISP.
• Deliver meal support and therapeutic interventions within the home environment to support recovery and reduce the need for hospital admission.
• Visit young people admitted to acute hospital settings, providing specialist eating disorder support, contributing to discharge planning, and ensuring continuity of care between inpatient and community services.
• Monitor physical health and wellbeing, escalating concerns appropriately and contributing to ongoing risk assessment and management.
• Work closely with therapists to support the delivery of FBT and agreed care plans.
• Provide emotional, practical, and psychoeducational support to young people, families, and carers.
• Act as an advocate for children and young people, ensuring care is individualised and focused on their needs and recovery goals.
• Work collaboratively with multidisciplinary colleagues, GPs, schools, acute hospitals, and partner agencies to coordinate high-quality care.
• Maintain accurate clinical records and contribute to care planning, review, and evaluation processes.
• Provide specialist advice and support to professionals involved in the care of children and young people with eating disorders.
• Ensure all interventions are delivered in accordance with Trust policies, clinical governance standards, and health and safety requirements.

Job description

Job overview

The Essex Eating Disorders Team provides community-based care for children and young people across Essex, Southend, and Thurrock.

This is an exciting role designed to provide intensive support packages aimed at preventing hospital admissions and facilitating early discharge from inpatient settings. The post holder will work within the Eating Disorder Team's Intensive Support Pathway (ISP), supporting families by providing meal support, monitoring physical health, and working alongside therapists to deliver Family-Based Therapy (FBT).

Please note that this role involves regular travel. The successful candidate must have access to suitable transport to undertake home visits and travel to acute hospital settings across Essex as required.

Main duties of the job

• Provide intensive community-based support to children and young people with eating disorders and their families as part of the ISP.
• Deliver meal support and therapeutic interventions within the home environment to support recovery and reduce the need for hospital admission.
• Visit young people admitted to acute hospital settings, providing specialist eating disorder support, contributing to discharge planning, and ensuring continuity of care between inpatient and community services.
• Monitor physical health and wellbeing, escalating concerns appropriately and contributing to ongoing risk assessment and management.
• Work closely with therapists to support the delivery of FBT and agreed care plans.
• Provide emotional, practical, and psychoeducational support to young people, families, and carers.
• Act as an advocate for children and young people, ensuring care is individualised and focused on their needs and recovery goals.
• Work collaboratively with multidisciplinary colleagues, GPs, schools, acute hospitals, and partner agencies to coordinate high-quality care.
• Maintain accurate clinical records and contribute to care planning, review, and evaluation processes.
• Provide specialist advice and support to professionals involved in the care of children and young people with eating disorders.
• Ensure all interventions are delivered in accordance with Trust policies, clinical governance standards, and health and safety requirements.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will work within the Essex Eating Disorders Team's ISP, providing specialist, intensive support to children and young people with eating disorders and their families across Essex, Southend, and Thurrock. The role is focused on preventing unnecessary hospital admissions where possible and supporting safe, timely discharge from inpatient and acute paediatric settings.

The successful candidate will provide practical, emotional, and therapeutic support to young people and their families, including meal support, monitoring physical health, and assisting with the implementation of treatment plans. They will work closely with therapists and other members of the multidisciplinary team to support the delivery of FBT and other evidence-based interventions.

A key aspect of the role involves supporting young people admitted to acute hospital settings for medical stabilisation and refeeding. This includes regular hospital visits, liaison with ward staff and medical teams, supporting families throughout admission, contributing to discharge planning, and ensuring continuity of care between hospital and community services.

The post holder will be responsible for monitoring risk, recognising changes in physical and mental health, and escalating concerns appropriately in line with local and Trust procedures. They will maintain accurate clinical records, contribute to care planning and reviews, and ensure that all interventions are delivered in accordance with professional standards, clinical governance requirements, and Trust policies.

The role requires close partnership working with families, carers, schools, GPs, paediatric services, mental health professionals, and other agencies involved in the young person's care. The post holder will provide specialist advice and support to colleagues and partner organisations, advocate on behalf of young people and families, and promote a collaborative approach to treatment and recovery.

The successful candidate will be expected to work autonomously while also contributing effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team. They will manage a varied caseload, prioritise competing demands, maintain effective communication with all stakeholders, and demonstrate flexibility in meeting the needs of the service. The role involves travel across Essex, Southend, and Thurrock and may include working across a range of community and hospital settings.

Working for Us

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 and Essex. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award-winning equality and diversity initiatives, along with staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest significantly in your development because when you feel valued and supported, we can deliver the highest quality care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been recognised in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and hold a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Through our staff networks and training opportunities, we strive to foster a just and compassionate culture at NELFT.

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.

They are:

• 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.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period.

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

We value applications that genuinely reflect each candidate’s own skills, experience and motivations. We therefore strongly discourage the use of AI-generated content in applications.

Applications should be written in your own words and accurately represent your knowledge, skills and experience.

We reserve the right to reject an application where we reasonably believe AI has been used to generate or materially contribute to its content.