Specialist Paediatric Dietitian - Home Enteral Nutrition

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

London

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 - the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone. You can read more about our visions and values here

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as "good" or "outstanding" in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King's College London's GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and motivated dietitian to join our friendly and innovative Paediatric Home Enteral Nutrition Service in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham.
This is an ideal opportunity for a dietitian who would like gain experience in nutrition support, developing clinical skills working with children and young people living in the community with a feeding tube. You will work closely with the multidisciplinary team including Dietitians, Speech and Language Therapists, Specialist Nurses and Community Paediatricians.
We are committed to the personal and professional development of all staff and prioritise the wellbeing of everyone in our department.
You will be actively encouraged and supported in your personal development, which will include involvement in multi-disciplinary CPD activities, research and audit. Ongoing support and supervision are always available and is integral to the ethos of the team.
Our experienced team are ready to welcome you and we can't wait for you to start.

THIS IS A FIXED TERM CONTRACT POST to cover the team's structuring of establishing apprenticeship post

Please note: We may not be able to offer sponsorship for this post.

Main duties of the job

You will be part of our team of Specialist Paediatric Dietitians, Dietetic Assistants and administrators providing and developing the dietetic service to tube fed infants, children and young people across Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark.
You will assess and treat a specialist dietetic caseload of children receiving home enteral feeding, liaising with their families, carers, acute and community staff. This could be in the child's own home, clinics, nursery or school. This will include both oral and enteral nutrition support.
You will contribute to training and supporting other healthcare professionals and students; and participate in audit, research, and service development projects.

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
Improving the experience of staff with disability
Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job Summary:

To assist in the provision and the development of the paediatric dietetic service provided by the HEN team across Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark
To assess and treat a specialist dietetic caseload receiving HEN, liaising with their families, carers, acute and community staff. This could be in the patient's own home, clinics, nursery or school
To contribute to training and supporting other healthcare professionals and students visiting the HEN team as requested
To be involved in the management and clinical supervision of junior staff, including dietetic support workers
To participate in research and audit

Key Result Areas & Performance:

To provide expert, evidence based dietetic assessment and advice for children receiving home enteral nutrition
To assist in the management of the paediatric dietetic caseload ensuring high quality dietetic care is delivered. This will include the review of patients at appropriate intervals according to prioritising criteria and clinical judgement

To undertake multidisciplinary assessment and review of patients
To agree care plans with families and/ or carers to help meet their nutrition-related goals

To work in a variety of community settings, advising families, carers and health and social care professionals by telephone as well as face to face. This could be in a patient's own homes, day centre, schools or clinics.
To provide practical and safe tube feeding plans to families and/ or their carers for use in the community
To work autonomously when assessing patients, making clinical decisions, and evaluating outcomes of dietetic interventions asking for advice and support when required
To advise on and order specialist Nutritional and enteral feeding products as required, including enteral feeds and tube feeding ancillaries/pumps
To accurately document and record data for all activities concerning patient care in accordance with the Trust and HEN Team policies.
To work with other health and social care professionals outside the HEN team to ensure continuity of patient care.

Workforce

To be responsible to the Clinical Lead HEN Dietitian for Children and/or Children's Community Dietetic Service Lead.
To work with HEN Clinical Lead to manage the paediatric dietetic caseload. Within this, to be responsible for managing own workload, including designated caseload, and be accountable and responsible for own professional actions
To ensure safe practice through the development of a caseload management plan, taking into account risk management, documenting and reporting any critical incidents to the Clinical Lead HEN Dietitian for Children and/or Children's Community Dietetic Service Lead.

To provide cover for the other paediatric dietitians within the HEN team during periods of staff absence
To make all clinical decisions and judgments autonomously, guided by broad professional and organisational policies
To be responsible for obtaining consent from patients and/or carers prior to dietetic intervention

To exercise awareness of professional responsibilities by continuously up-dating personal knowledge and skills in order to maintain continuous professional development
To actively participate in clinical supervision and appraisal process
To effectively liaise with other HEN Team members and to regularly participate in team meetings

To liaise with health care professionals regarding hospital discharges and/ or new referrals, offering joint visits with other community Healthcare Professionals if appropriate
To demonstrate skilled clinical expertise within own team and Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust and act as a resource in the specialism of enteral nutrition

To actively train, support and assess HEN team members where appropriate.

To be involved in providing training and up to date information on enteral tube feeding to health and social care professionals across Lewisham, Southwark and Lambeth (acute and community) as requested
To participate in formal study days, giving presentations as appropriate
To contribute to the training of student healthcare professionals as required
To ensure all equipment defects, accidents, complaints and clinical incidents are reported to the HEN Service Lead and Trust incident reporting system ensuring necessary action is taken by those concerned

To implement policies and propose areas for service development/ changes to practices and procedures for dietetics based on up to date evidence and guidance

To be involved with research, audit and service improvement initiatives as required

Any other duties appropriate to the grade as may be allocated by the Clinical Lead HEN Dietitian (Children) or Children's Community Dietetic Service Lead.

Person specification

Qualifications & Training

Essential criteria

BSc in Dietetics or equivalent
Current State Registration with Health and Care Professions Council
Member of British Dietetic Association
Continuous professional development

Desirable criteria

Post graduate training in Paediatric Dietetics e.g. Completion of BDA paediatric modules 1 & 2
Member of BDA Specialist Group
Training in motivational interviewing or similar

Experience

Essential criteria

Dietetic Experience - minimum 2 years as a Band 5 ideally to include some paediatric experience
Providing nutrition support to complex patients
Working as part of a multidisciplinary team
Working with a diverse caseload
Safe management of own workload and diary
Adapting styles of communication to suit variety of situations

Desirable criteria

Multidisciplinary goal setting
Working in the community
Communicating complex and emotive information
Appropriate use of electronic records
Conducting Audits and or research
Involvement in student training/training others

Knowledge & Skills

Essential criteria

Sound Clinical knowledge of tube feeding and oral nutrition support
Understanding roles within a multidisciplinary team and how they may work together for the benefit of a patient
Knowledge of lone worker safety and community working
Computer literacy, including use of Microsoft Office

Desirable criteria

Understanding the use of a range of anthropometric measurements
Understanding the importance of safeguarding children

We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women's staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note, not all roles will meet the criteria for a skilled worker visa.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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 & Person Spec (PDF, 325.8KB)
Working at LGT (PDF, 4.2MB)

Posted 2025-05-20