Clinical Lead Community Special Educational Needs Dietitian

Job description

Job responsibilities

Post Title: Clinical Dietetic Lead for Children with Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND)

Department: Community Childrens Dietetic SEND Team

Responsible to: Community Childrens Dietetic Service Lead

Grade: Band 7

Hours: 37.5 (1.0 WTE)

Job Summary:

Key Result Areas & Performance:

The post holder will be the clinical team lead for the Community Childrens Dietetic SEND Team. The team will provide a dietetic service across Lewisham working to meet SEND quality standards and service goals in accordance with the Trusts and SEND teams strategy. The post holder will take the clinical lead in working with stakeholders to write, disseminate and implement referral criteria, education programmes and guidelines for the team. They will need to be able to see patients in a community setting, where they may be acting as a lone worker.

Clinical Duties and Responsibilities

Communication and Relationship Skills

1. To provide expert, specialist, evidence based, dietetic advice and care to paediatric patients and their carers. Communicating highly complex and sensitive information on nutrition using negotiation, counselling and behavioural change skills.

1. To work autonomously when assessing patients, making clinical decisions, selecting treatments and evaluating outcomes of dietetic interventions.
2. To collaborate with team members to ensure the child receives care and advice on all aspects of feeding at home. This will require particularly close liaison with the Childrens Community Nursing Team and Speech and Language therapists, Occupational Therapists, Feeding Team and Consultant Paediatricians.

1. To develop and maintain close communications with all health care professionals (Consultants, GPs, Acute Dietitians, HEN Team, Childrens Community Nurses, SALTs, OTs, Physios, School Teachers, School Nurses, Health Visitors, Social workers, Portage workers), private sector companies and other agencies as necessary in order to provide co-ordinated patient centred care.

1. To arrange visits/clinics for patients and their families at the various childrens centres, schools and nurseries. Attend, where appropriate, local hospital or community meetings and clinics with other members of the MDT.

1. To work with families who may have learning disabilities, mental health problems and challenging behaviours
2. To work with patients who have language barriers to effective communication. This may often require the use of interpreting services via the telephone or with a relevant interpreter at the patients place of care.
3. To empathise, communicate and reassure families who may be dealing with unpleasant circumstances/diagnosis relating to their child. This may include relaying additional unwelcome information relating to the long-term nutritional requirements of a child.
4. To use motivational and negotiating skills to facilitate acceptance and ongoing compliance with nutritional treatment plans.

1. To act as a keyworker to certain families. Besides acting as an emotional support for the family the Dietitian will be responsible as the organisational link between all health professionals involved in the acute and community settings ensuring consistency of services.
2. To be involved with children and their carers placed on the child protection register. The dietitian will be responsible for receiving highly confidential, complex and sensitive information and will act within Lewisham and Greenwich Paediatric Community Services child protection policies.
3. To document all activities concerning patient care in the electronic paediatric dietetic patient record notes including all confidential correspondence with health care professionals in accordance with trust policies.

1. To produce timely and informative reports for Consultants, Paediatrician, GPs and other health professional relevant to a specific family.

1. To negotiate with carers, clients and other members of the multi-disciplinary team around individual case management and to provide support to other team members and health care professionals in this specialist area.

Analytical and Judgement skills

1. To make all clinical decisions and judgments autonomously guided by broad professional and organisational policies.
2. To implement specialist clinical dietetic assessment, treatment and management of patients referred to the SEND team. This will include the advising, ordering and prescribing of specialist products listed as ACBS (Advisory Committee on Borderline Substances).

1. To analyse dietary intake and calculate nutritional requirements using clinical judgement and experience as well as computer software as required when completing a treatment plan for a specific patient.

1. To be trained to trainer level in the use of anthropometrics equipment for the assessment of nutritional status such as skin fold callipers, portable and hoist scales, enteral feeding pumps and equipment.
2. To take anthropometric measurements and interpret as part of nutrition assessment of patients ongoing monitoring.

Planning and Organisational Skills

1. To manage and act as an independent holder of the paediatric caseload ensuring high quality dietetic care is delivered. Carrying out systematic review of patients at appropriate intervals according to prioritising criteria and clinical judgement.
2. To liaise with health care professionals regarding hospital discharges or new referrals and offer joint visits as required enabling them to formulate nutrition care plans which are based on specialist assessment and recommendations.

1. To provide cover for the other dietitians within the SEND team during periods of staff absence.

1. To devise and implement specialist evidence/research-based guidelines and protocols that can be used Trust(s) wide for the dietetic care management in relation to paediatric nutrition.

1. To demonstrate highly skilled clinical expertise within own team and The Lewisham and Greenwich NHS TRUST and act as a resource in the specialism of children with SEND, advising colleagues on the management within the specialist area.

Managerial and Administrative Responsibilities

1. To be solely responsible for prioritising and managing own caseload and to oversee the organisation and development of the caseload across the service, identifying shortfalls and issues to be addressed.
2. To supervise dietitians and dietetic assistants who would assist in the care and administration of Paediatric SEND patients.

1. To provide support and training to the SEND team administration staff.
2. To be involved in the development of, write and update, disseminate and implement policies and procedures related to all aspects regarding the Paediatric SEND team across Lewisham. This will be used as a point of reference for all organisations, i.e. Special Needs schools, Childrens Community Nurses, Special needs nurses, and Speech and Language Therapists

1. To be aware of trust policies and procedure and participate in their creation and development. The dietitian will be responsible for working under these broad guidelines and when the need arises is able to discuss problems as part of a peer review.

1. To assist in the co-ordination of SEND team service objectives and projects contributing to the team service plan.

To ensure all equipment defects, accidents, complaints and clinical incidents are reported to the team leader and necessary action is taken by those concerned.

Person Specification

Qualifications & Training

Essential

• o4 year degree in dietetics or equivalent
• oCurrent State Registration
• oAdvanced BDA course in paediatrics (or equivalent)
• oSpecialist paediatric training/experience working to or at masters level
• oRegistration with HCPC
• oBritish Dietetic Association member or equivalent professional insurance
• oEvidence of ongoing Professional development

Desirable

• oAdvanced British Dietetic Association Course in Nutritional Support
• oNutritional Support Training
• oInterest in Research
• oKnowledge of ARFID
• oExperience of working in a feeding clinic

Experience

Essential

• oSignificant experience of paediatric dietetics
• oExperience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• oEvidence of training student dietitians
• oAble to decide priorities for own work area, balancing patient-related and managerial role
• oExperience of working in a multi-ethnic and cultural setting
• oExperience of working in complex safeguarding situations

Desirable

• oWorking in the community setting
• oPrevious experience of conducting audits and or research

Knowledge

Essential

• oUnderstand and abide by standards of professional practice, including confidentiality
• oAble to demonstrate awareness of current NHS changes and professional issues
• oTo have an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the other disciplines within the MDT team
• oComputer Literacy, able to use Word, Excel
• oAccurate anthropometrics measurement skills

Desirable

• oFull driving licence

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

Address

University Hospital Lewisham

Kaleidoscope Centre for Children and Young People, 32 Rushey Green

London

SE13 6LH

Employer's website

https://www.lewishamandgreenwich.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)