Dietitian

Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust is a friendly, integrated healthcare provider focused on improving the life chances and health outcomes of our diverse population. We have three strategic objectives:

• People: To cultivate and sustain happy, productive and engaged staff;
• Patients: To be good or outstanding at everything we do;
• Population: To work seamlessly with partners to improve lives.

We run services from Sandwell, City and Rowley Regis Hospitals, Birmingham & Midland Eye Centre, Birmingham Treatment Centre, the Lyng and Leasowes Intermediate Care Centre. Our GP practices and community teams provide care in schools, healthcare centres and at home.

Our next milestone is opening the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH), a once in a career opportunity to shape care transformation within and beyond the hospital walls. Developing and caring for our People is fundamental. We were one of the first Trusts to provide the Real Living Wage, as well as a Live and Work scheme to support people at risk of homelessness into paid work and training. We offer a range of staff benefits, health & wellbeing support and will help you to bring your ambition to life through our bespoke training and development programmes. As “People” is one of our three strategic objectives, we make a continued commitment to prioritise support for all our colleagues.

Healthcare services have a significant impact on the environment. We are committed to embedding sustainable practices. We expect all colleagues to support the delivery of our Green Strategic Plan and to drive positive changes in their department.

The Nutrition and Dietetics Service at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust is growing following investment and we are delighted to offer this opportunity to join our team. Our belief is that dietitians, nutrition nurses and support staff:

• Enable recovery
• Empower quality of life
• Bring independence and dignity to our patients

We are looking for an innovative individual who is motivated by MDT working and keen to work in a growing department in a band 5 dietitian position working primarily with inpatients within elderly care, trauma and orthopaedics or general medicine; with additional clinical attachment opportunities across surgery, stroke, medicine, gastro and oncology specialities and one community rotation working with people with a range of medical conditions on oral and enteral feeding pathways. All of our band 5 dietitian roles contain an outpatient element and are well supported by senior staff and peers.

Candidates will be joining our service at a time of considerable opportunity and we are delighted to offer this opportunity to join our team.

This is a varied post providing a dietetic attachment and broad experience across the service; providing you an opportunity to expand your dietetic knowledge and develop your passion for nutrition and dietetics across a range of working environments. We currently offer six monthly attachments, with four attachment options in the acute setting and one in the community setting. We tailor our attachments to the needs of the service and to you as a professional providing strong development opportunities into your speciality of preference or to receive a broad experience working in a number of areas department-wide.

Our attachments strongly align with the BDA preceptorship and we have a strong focus on continued professional development and peer support. Our team is supportive and friendly and all staff members joining the department are supported with internal and external training and development opportunities in addition to access to the nationally recognised Black Country preceptorship programme for newly qualified professionals. You would be joining our ambitious and forward-thinking therapies structure and existing band 5 dietitian team (working alongside seven band 5 dietitian peers).

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust (SWBT) is an integrated care organisation with a budget of approximately £600 million and over 7,000 staff. Diversity and social care is at the core of what we do as the Trust provides Community and Acute Services to over half a million people in an urban centre that demands massive regeneration and has substantial premature mortality.

Our new acute hospital, the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH), opens in 2024 and will provide care to our local population from first class, purpose-built premises. As a result, the base of this role may change to MMUH from 2024 (or beyond). If this is applicable to your role, you will be informed during the recruitment process and continuing your application with this understanding. The development of the new hospital will play an important role in the regeneration of the wider area and in improving the lives of local people and reducing health inequalities.

We have three newly emerging strategic objectives:

• Our People: to cultivate and sustain happy, productive and engaged staff
• Our Patients: to be good or outstanding in everything we do
• Our Population: to work seamlessly with our partners to improve life

Please see attached Job Description and Person Specification for full details of what this role entails.

You can hear from our team members in relation to what it is like to work for us:

• Degree/Post-graduate Diploma in Dietetics or Nutrition and Dietetics
• HCPC Registration
• Member of BDA
• Completion of/ working towards completion of student dietitian placements/ experience transferable to UK clinical practice
• Broad knowledge of clinical dietetics and common conditions and able to link to relevance of dietetic input
• Demonstrable understanding of anthropometry and its indications
• Knowledge of BDA professional standards
• Understanding of clinical governance and its benefits i.e. audit/ incident reporting
• Ability to recognise limits of competence and know when to seek support from senior staff
• Clear, concise written communication
• Experience of using an interpreter service for dietary consultations

Desire to work as a Dietitian in Sandwell and West Birmingham. Desire to work as a Dietitian with clinical attachments.

Minimum of satisfactory completion of clinical placement as student dietitian during training. As a major employer in the Black Country and West Birmingham region we are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance. We want the Black Country and West Birmingham region to be the best place to work and as such will consider all requests to work flexibly taking into account personal and individual circumstances alongside the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the Recruiting Manager as part of the on-boarding process.

You must have appropriate UK professional registration. This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.