Specialist Paediatric Dietitian

Job overview

Are you a paediatric dietitian passionate about working with children and young people?

Would you like to build your experience in a rewarding and supportive senior role?

We have a flexible, fixed-term opportunity to join our small, friendly and experienced community team supporting children and young people with complex feeding needs across West Berkshire.

You’ll work with children who are enterally fed or have feeding difficulties with a designated caseload so post qualified paediatric and enteral feeding experience is essential.

The role includes:

• Working with children in community settings including home visits, schools and hospitals
• A variety of face-to-face and telephone clinics across West Berkshire with some home working available
• Being part of a friendly, experienced and supportive team, meeting regularly at our attractive University of Reading base to collaborate and share learning.

Perhaps you’re an experienced Band 6 ready to build your Band 7 experience, or you might be an established Band 7 dietitian who will appreciate this varied, flexible role in a welcoming team.

Your working pattern will be 22.5 hrs/week within our core Monday – Friday hours.

Applications for this role will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible, as vacancies may close early

Main duties of the job

• Provide expert clinical dietary and nutritional assessment, management, and education for children and young people (CYP) with complex needs requiring enteral feeding.
• Manage and balance nutritional requirements alongside co-morbidities, including calculating nutritional needs through interpretation of biochemistry, anthropometry, and clinical conditions.
• Deliver specialist skills and knowledge to support CYP with disabilities and/or complex needs who are at risk of nutritional imbalance.
• Offer specialist supervision and support to newly qualified dietitians and students within the team, sharing expertise to promote best practice.
• Set up and manage feeding delivery accounts and equipment for enterally fed CYP through home delivery companies, ensuring financial prudence and effective resource use.
• Collaborate with Community Children’s Nurses, Specialist School Nurses, Special Needs Schools, Primary Care, Short Break settings, Children’s Services, and other relevant agencies to develop, plan, and implement individualised care plans.
• Work within the policies and procedures of Berkshire Safeguarding Children’s Board and Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BHFT), prioritising attendance at case conferences, reviews, and planning meetings. Responsible for preparing case conference and court reports as required, contributing to safeguarding all children.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The “must haves” for this role:

• Qualified Dietician registered with the HCPC
• Member of the British Dietetic Association
• Paediatric and enteral feeding experience
• Ability and willingness to travel between multiple community sites efficiently

For further information about the role, please see attached job description and person specification.

We strongly encourage you to review how you meet the criteria in the person specification and write about this point-by-point in your supporting statement for the best chance of being shortlisted.

We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Race Equality Matters Silver Trailblazer, Neurodiversity in Business Corporate Member, Disability Confident Leader, Carer Confident Level 2, and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award. Reasonable adjustments will be provided to candidates as needed.

We welcome a conversation about flexibility and any other questions you may have. Please don’t hesitate to call: Claire Thompson on 07760 415776 who’ll be delighted to help.

Please note, if we receive a high number of applications, we may close this role earlier than the advertised closing date, so please submit your application as soon as possible.