At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead special dietary management for school meals, ensuring safety and nutrition for children.
- Company: Join Juniper, a purpose-led organisation focused on health and wellbeing in schools.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, exceptional pension scheme, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Collaborative culture with strong relationships across schools, parents, and healthcare professionals.
- Why this job: Make a real difference in children's health while working in a supportive environment.
- Qualifications: HCPC registered Dietitian with experience in managing special dietary needs.
The predicted salary is between 54975 - 54975 £ per year.
About Juniper
At Juniper, we deliver a diverse range of soft FM services including Catering, Cleaning and Health & Safety Consultancy; primarily in the education and public sectors. Our culture is built on trust, ownership, and high performance, where individuals are empowered to shape their work and have a real impact. For someone who believes in strong relationships and wants their skills to contribute to a purpose-led organisation, Juniper offers the perfect environment to contribute and grow.
The Role
We are seeking a qualified and passionate Dietitian to join our Catering Team and lead the management of special dietary provision across our school meal services. This is a specialist role focused on ensuring children with food allergies, intolerances, coeliac disease, diabetes, and other dietary requirements can safely access nutritious, inclusive, and enjoyable school meals. Working closely with schools, catering teams, parents, healthcare professionals and local authority partners, you will provide expert advice on allergen management, nutritional compliance, menu development, and special diet provision. You will play a key role in supporting the health, wellbeing and safety of children while driving best practice across our school catering operations.
About you
You are a HCPC registered Dietitian with experience of assessing and managing special dietary requirements and translating clinical dietary needs into practical food solutions. You have a strong understanding of allergen legislation, food safety requirements, nutritional standards, and risk management. You are confident communicating with a wide range of stakeholders and can build positive relationships with schools, catering teams, parents, healthcare professionals and commissioners. Highly organised and detail oriented, you are able to manage competing priorities while maintaining accurate records and ensuring compliance with relevant legislation and standards. Most importantly, you are passionate about improving children's health and wellbeing and committed to delivering safe, inclusive, and high-quality catering services.
Overall Purpose of Job
To lead the assessment, development and management of special dietary provision for children in schools, ensuring all meals provided are safe, nutritionally appropriate and fully compliant with allergen, medical, religious, cultural and lifestyle dietary requirements.
Job Context
The Dietitian reports directly to the Head of Catering and plays a key role in supporting the delivery of safe, compliant and inclusive school meal services across the organisation. The role works closely with operational catering teams, school leaders, healthcare professionals and families to ensure best practice in allergen management, nutritional compliance and special diet provision.
Principal Accountabilities
- Special Diet Management
- Review and assess special diet requests and supporting medical documentation.
- Develop, approve and review individual dietary plans.
- Maintain accurate records and documentation relating to special diets.
- Ensure all special diet provision is safe, appropriate and regularly reviewed.
- Allergen and Food Safety Compliance
- Provide specialist guidance on allergen management and risk mitigation.
- Ensure compliance with relevant food safety legislation and School Food Standards.
- Support implementation of safe food handling and service procedures.
- Investigate incidents and drive corrective actions where required.
- Menu Development and Nutritional Compliance
- Assess menus against nutritional standards and government guidance.
- Ensure special diet menus remain nutritionally equivalent to standard menu offerings.
- Support menu innovation to improve inclusivity, choice and meal uptake.
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Act as the primary contact for dietary-related enquiries.
- Build effective relationships with schools, parents, carers and healthcare professionals.
- Provide accurate advice regarding allergens, ingredients and nutritional content.
- Training and Education
- Deliver training programmes on nutrition, food allergies and allergen legislation.
- Develop practical guidance, resources and educational materials.
- Promote awareness of dietary inclusion and healthy eating.
- Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement
- Conduct audits of allergen and special diet management processes.
- Monitor compliance and identify opportunities for service enhancement.
- Produce reports and management information relating to special diet activity and performance.
- Support service development and continuous improvement initiatives.
Benefits
Competitive salary of £54,975 per annum. Exceptional Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) – a highly valued defined benefit pension offering a secure, inflation linked income in retirement, generous employer contributions.
Registered Dietitian employer: Juniper Ventures Ltd
Juniper is an exceptional employer that prioritises a culture of trust, ownership, and high performance, making it an ideal place for a Registered Dietitian to thrive. With a strong commitment to employee growth and a focus on meaningful contributions to children's health and wellbeing, Juniper offers competitive salaries, an outstanding Local Government Pension Scheme, and opportunities to engage with diverse stakeholders in the education sector. Join us to make a real impact while enjoying a supportive work environment that values your expertise and passion.
