Lead Dietitian - Food First

Job overview

Food First Lead Dietitian (Band 7)

Department of Nutrition & Dietetics

Hours: up to 37.5 hours / week – fixed term contract / secondment opportunity

1 year from October 2025

Are you an experienced Community Dietitian ready to take the next step in your career?

We have an exciting opportunity for a dynamic and motivated individual to lead our Food First and Prescribing Support Dietetic Service in Milton Keynes.

This is a 12-month leadership role within our innovative and supportive community dietetic team, working across care homes and primary care settings. You’ll lead a small, dedicated team comprising a Dietitian and a Dietetic Assistant Practitioner, collaborating closely with colleagues across Bedfordshire and Luton.

This role is ideal for a dietitian with substantial community experience and a passion for service development and leadership. You’ll bring strong communication, time management, and teamworking skills, along with the flexibility to adapt in a fast-paced environment.

You’ll be part of a vibrant department based at Milton Keynes University Hospital, home to over 30 registered dietitians, dietetic support workers, and admin staff. Our service spans acute, community, paediatric, and learning disability care.

We pride ourselves on our collaborative culture, excellent support systems, and commitment to professional development. We also host student placements from the University of Surrey, and Oxford Brookes University.

Interview date:14.07.25

Main duties of the job

What We Offer:

A forward-thinking, friendly team environment

Strong admin and assistant support

On-site accommodation (subject to availability)

Access to CPD and leadership development opportunities

Support from a dedicated Therapy Practice Education Team

Aim of the role

• Develop, lead, and coordinate a Food First team in Milton Keynes.
• The post holder will have knowledge of emerging clinical developments, provide advice to inform service development in the speciality in support of the Dietetic Service Lead.
• To demonstrate and role model specialist clinical assessment and treatment skills for an agreed caseload of patients.
• To continually review staffing levels/skill mix in accordance with the changing needs of the service and informing the Dietetic Service Lead of any problems that may arise.
• To act as a source of expertise in specialist area for patients, carers, medical staff and other health professionals, prescribing support team, GPs and colleagues.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Leadership and Management

• To provide clinical and managerial leadership to the Food First team by working collaboratively with other Lead Dietitians and the Dietetic Service Lead.
• To plan and co-ordinate the day-to-day provision of Food First team
• To provide leadership and oversight for the care home programme which works with all care homes for older people to meet and maintain the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) regulation 14 (meeting nutritional and hydration needs) and Enhanced Health in Care Homes (EHCH) priorities.

Clinical Practice

• To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of your own work, ensuring a high standard of clinical care for the patients under your management by supporting more junior staff to do likewise.
• To accept clinical responsibility for a designated caseload of community patients and to organise this effectively and efficiently regarding clinical priorities and use of time. To oversee the caseloads of more junior staff.

• To undertake comprehensive specialist assessment, treatment and discharge of patients including those with diverse and complex presentations and multiple pathologies. Use specialist clinical reasoning, evidence-based practice, investigative and analytical skills.

Professional Duties

• To maintain own competency to practice through CPD activities, demonstrating awareness of new trends and developments and their incorporation into practice as necessary.
• To actively participate in the in-service training programmes by attending and delivering presentations, tutorials, individual training sessions, peer review, external courses and professional clinical interest groups.

Governance

• To demonstrate a sound understanding of Clinical Governance and Risk Management and their application to work situation.
• To assess and manage clinical risk within patient caseload in a wide variety of settings, providing guidance to junior staff. Please refer to the job description for further details.