Clinical Lead Dietitian

Job overview

The LYPFT Learning Disability service provides multi professional, specialist health services for people, over the age of 18, with a learning disability across community settings, respite and the intensive support team.  The service works in partnership with key stakeholders including service users and carers, adult social care, third sector and private providers to deliver health care for people with highly complex health needs that may include; behaviours that challenge, mental health and/or dual diagnosis and complex multiple impairment / physical health needs.

The dietetics team are an integral part of the MDT, we are seeking a dynamic and motivated individual who is confident to lead the dietetic team in providing high quality care. The ideal candidate will be confident in providing dietetic interventions to an identified caseload of people with highly complex needs, they must have post qualification experience of working in learning disability services and ideally have experience of working with service users who require an enteral feed.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for an individual who is passionate about developing the dietetic offer within the service and is able to develop and implement effective, evidence based pathways. The role is reliant on effective team working skills both clinically and within a leadership capacity and the successful candidate will be expected to work with, Clinical Team Managers, clinical leads of the professions, and the AHP Professional Lead, to lead and develop the LD AHP community in line with LD national and local agendas. We are looking for an individual with good planning, organisational and time management skills who is proactive, creative and has a good use of initiative. The individual will need to be able to work flexibly across the service as needs dictate.

The successful applicant will benefit from support from the trust’s Principal Dietetic Practitioner and peer support, sharing of best practice and CPD opportunities provided by membership of the trustwide dietetic leadership forum and Trustwide dietetic forum, as well as local multidisciplinary networks.

As part of the interview process candidates will be asked to prepare a short presentation and will be given time prior to interview to prepare for this.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical: To demonstrate, co-ordinate and provide a high degree of specialist, holistic, expert knowledge and clinical practice with regards to Dietetic assessment and intervention to the Leeds Learning Disability service users with highly complex and multiple impairment and physical disabilities or health needs.

Professional Leadership (staff): To work with and support the clinical team managers and clinical service managers to develop Dietetic clinical practice to enhance the treatment of service users who access the Learning Disability Services through the professional leadership of Dietetic staff in the Leeds Learning Disability Directorate.

Professional Leadership (strategic / service development): To work with and support the Professional lead for Allied Health Professionals and Principal Dietetic Practitioner to provide a source of expertise that develops and shares innovative practice and strategic guidance / advice (applied to the LD service line) in line with the organisational goals and models of service delivery.

This post is a pivotal role in leading and providing the dietetic perspective within the delivery of LD clinical pathways, service development and governance.

Please refer to the job description for further details on the below:

• Demonstrate a high level of communication skills both internally within the Trust and externally with other professionals, providers and agencies.
• To co-ordinate and communicate complex care packages for defined Service Users both verbally within team meetings and telephone and non-verbally through CPA, reports and documentation. Also, through carers and other agencies.
• Be a visible face for your Profession within the Learning Disability service line and a point of contact for your professional colleagues.
• Ability to travel and access to a suitable vehicle for community-based work essential for post.
• Provides a leadership style which is underpinned by strongly held values around equality, diversity and openness; effectively builds and maintains relationships with direct reportee(s), management team and other key individuals across the organisation
• Be able to demonstrate effective working partnerships within a multi-disciplinary team, to achieve an integrated, effective, and efficient service
• Post holder will have a highly specialized caseload including service users that have difficulty engaging, capacity and complex needs..
• To take a lead role in creating, developing and updating clinical pathways, within the area of dietetics.
• To lead on clinical governance for dietetics and contribute to governance within the service.
• To act as an expert/specialist resource for credible information and advice on food and health issues to colleagues and others e.g. senior managers, planners, within the health economy, local authority, voluntary sector and the general public and negotiate agreed priorities where there are differing opinions and conflicting interests.
• To be flexible to the demands of the environment including unpredictable work patterns, deadlines and frequent interruptions.
• To develop and coordinate a nutrition intervention work programme to implement the strategy and policies for the Learning Disabilities service
• To ensure that services are planned, implemented and evaluated within the framework of clinical governance i.e. demonstrate that working practices are evidence based and up to date through the application of research findings and best practice, involve patients and the public and report all incidents and risks and follow through to prevent/reduce recurrence.
• To maintain specialist knowledge of relevant current evidence base, and actively translate evidence base into practice, ensuring this is reflected in service outcomes
• To ensure that standards for Dietetic staff supervision and clinical practice are reviewed and monitored against Trust policy, BDA and HCPC standards.
• To support the Professional Lead for Allied Health Professionals and Principal Dietetic Practitioner in developing Dietetic services in line with the NHS modernization agenda, Department of Health directives and the LD service lines development strategy.