Specialist Community Dietitian - Paediatrics

Are you a Dietitian who has a passion for Paediatrics? If you have not worked in Paediatrics before, you will be fully supported with relevant learning and development opportunities. The trust also has an in-house leadership programme for your leadership development. With this being a new post, this is an exciting time to join a growing team and shape the Paediatric services for the future in the St Helens and Knowsley region. We work closely within the ICB with acute Paediatric Dietetic teams in Mersey and West Lancs and Alderhey Hospitals and our Merseycare across Liverpool and Sefton. You will contribute to the development of the service, with a focus on patient experience, quality and evidence-based practice. The St Helens and Knowsley Dietetics team is a friendly, supportive and integrated team of 14 Community Dietitians and Assistants. You will join a Paediatric Dietetic team of 1 Band 7 Highly Specialist Dietitian, Band 6 Specialist Dietitian and a Dietetic assistant managing a caseload of community outpatient clinics, group sessions, virtual and domiciliary appointments. You will also work as part of a wider paediatric MDT across Community Division which may include School Nursing, Infant Feeding and Health Visiting teams. The post is based at Whiston Primary Care Resource Centre in Prescot with hybrid working considered. Please do not hesitate to contact the team if you are interested and would like to discuss the role further.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will provide Dietetic treatment for paediatrics based in community settings with an emphasis on faltering growth, fussy eating, nutrition support and home enteral tube feeding, cow's milk protein allergy, other allergies and general clinics. The successful candidate will manage a caseload along with the other specialist dietitians and be supported by the highly specialist Paediatric lead. You will have the opportunity to consolidate and develop clinical skills needed to manage nutritionally complex patients requiring both enteral and oral nutrition support. You will have regular clinical supervision and support in your role, with an opportunity to develop your knowledge, skills and career pathway. The role involves the ability to work autonomously and flexibly across Knowsley and St Helens, prioritising your caseload appropriately. You will help with triaging referrals and be involved in key projects and service developments within the team. We also support the growth and development of our workforce including Dietitian Apprenticeship programmes and are considering rotations into Paediatric Dietetics for our newly qualified staff in the future. You will be involved in the training and supervision of staff, apprentices and students. We work closely with our Practice Education Facilitators and Universities and contribute to trust and local policy and pathway developments.

Job responsibilities

1. Provide clinical leadership and management to the clinical team.
2. Be responsible for the delivery of the service within the area.
3. Work in partnership with other services/stakeholders to enable patients/clients to be treated in the appropriate setting.
4. Ensure that the team provides a high quality service to its clients by providing caseload and clinical supervision.
5. Contribute to working groups across Mersey Care lead by the AHP professional lead to develop the home enteral feeding service.
6. Attend quarterly home enteral feeding contract meetings to review KPIs and service delivery of home enteral feeding contract.
7. Have line management responsibility for the team ensuring appropriate delegation and delivery of patients/client care.
8. Ensure that teams work proactively in order to deliver anticipatory and maintenance care, providing a responsive service to patients/clients with both planned and unplanned care needs.
9. Maintain clinical credibility by providing clinical care and supporting members of the team within the clinical environment.
10. Participate in the development of caseload management across the local health economy.
11. Provide leadership and mentoring to those staff developing into a caseload management role.
12. Act as an advocate and champion for patients/clients in a variety of forums and professional groups.
13. Implement plans for the team including rotas and schedules/working patterns to ensure business continuity.
14. Practice autonomously and demonstrate evidence-based clinical decision making.
15. Provide clinical expertise and knowledge to the team when managing complex and highly complex situations.
16. Manage a caseload of complex oral nutrition support and home enteral feeding patients.
17. Assess patient/client conditions and consider a range of options when delivering complex and highly complex clinical care.
18. Work in collaboration with other stakeholders to deliver services to patients/clients.
19. Following holistic assessment of health needs, develop individualised care plans to fulfil those needs, with the involvement of patients/clients and carers.
20. Implement and evaluate care delivery for patients/clients with identified needs.
21. Ensure that all clinical activity provided by the team directly reflects the core objectives of health promotion, supported self-care, disease specific management, management of long term conditions and end of life/palliative care.
22. Set objectives by which performance will be monitored.
23. Work with the service lead to deliver local based services, by participating in meetings and communicating the outcomes to staff.
24. Provide reports to the service lead on staff and patient activity as requested.
25. Work in collaboration with others to support practice development and service modernisation.
26. Contribute to the development of role and service redesign.
27. Actively participate in policy and service development authoring protocols as required.
28. Provide induction to the local working environment, and policies for new team members and students.
29. Be an authorised signatory, ensuring probity in the authorisation of timecards and mileage claims.
30. Monitor budgets reporting over/under spending to the budget holder.
31. Undertake personal development plans (PDP) and ensure all team members have up to date PDPs.
32. Monitor Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) and reviews.
33. Ensure that all staff attend mandatory training.
34. Ensure that administration and clerical duties are appropriately delegated to clerical support officers.
35. Provide data that supports the monitoring of team contract and objectives.
36. Participate in audits and research, as required.
37. Participate in individual and group supervision.
38. Implement mentorship and clinical supervision with the team.
39. Ensure that record keeping within the team is consistent with professional standards.
40. Initiate training and development of team members.
41. Monitor and maintain standards of patient care delivery, including maintaining and monitoring of clinical competency and standards of record keeping.
42. In conjunction with the service lead, ensure systems are in place for the ongoing review and assessment of care provision and delivery.
43. Work within guidelines to identify and manage risk, reporting identified risks to the service lead.
44. Report any incidents as per Trust policies and support or undertake any investigations as delegated by the service lead.
45. Monitor and ensure that the quality of the patient care delivered by the team is evidenced based and supported by best practice, through the use of audit, caseload and clinical supervision.
46. Participate in patient satisfaction reporting to improve patient care.
47. Maintain registration in line with professional bodies.
48. Provide support to team members holding responsibility for mentoring students.
49. Identify skills deficits within the team and identify methods of addressing these to support service delivery, improvement, and development.
50. The post holder shall, as necessary, provide cover for and undertake duties of absent colleagues.
51. The post holder shall follow all the policies and procedures of the organisation.

Person Specification
Values
Essential

• Continuous Improvement
• Accountability
• Respectfulness
• Enthusiasm
• Support
• High professional standards
• Responsive to service users
• Engaging leadership style
• Strong customer service belief
• Transparency and honesty
• Discreet
• Change oriented

Qualifications
Essential

• BSc. Nutrition and Dietetics or relevant degree with postgraduate diploma in Dietetics
• Current Health and Care Professions Council Registration for Dietetics
• Mentorship and/or Student Training qualification e.g., SAS training

Desirable

• Full member of the British Dietetic Association
• Demonstrable post registration/qualification
• Completion of parenteral and enteral nutrition group (PENG) course
• Management and clinical leadership course or qualification

Knowledge / Experience
Essential

• Experience of successful multi-agency working
• Demonstrable experience in relevant area of practice
• Evidence of CPD/Short courses
• Awareness of current national and local agenda in health and social care
• Understanding of partnership working
• Understanding of the principles of care management
• Awareness of factors that contribute to good health and the importance of promoting these in line with organisational public health policy
• Evidence of being able to communicate complex information and advice on healthcare to patients/clients, carers and colleagues
• Work based experience

Desirable

• Management and clinical leadership experience

Skills
Essential

• Excellent communication, organizational and interpersonal skills
• Risk assessment skills
• Ability to travel to work across boundaries
• Self-management and motivation skills
• IT literate

Employer details
Employer name
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Whiston Primary Care and Resource Centre
Old Colliery Road
Prescot
L35 3SX
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