Specialist Eating Disorder Dietitian Plymouth

37.5 hours per week. Are you an experienced Dietitian looking for a role where you can combine clinical expertise, leadership and innovation? We're looking for a passionate Specialist Eating Disorder Dietitian to become a key member of our Eating Disorder Pathway spanning across the Eating Disorder Intensive Treatment Team (ED-ITT), The Eating Disorder Service (EDS) and the new Nutritional Risk Monitoring Clinic (NRMC), providing specialist nutritional support to people experiencing eating difficulties across these services.

In this rewarding Band 7 role, you'll work alongside a dedicated multidisciplinary team, delivering expert assessment and intervention, influencing service development, and leading dietetic practice within the pathway. This is a unique opportunity to help shape high-quality, recovery-focused care while developing your own specialist expertise in a supportive and forward-thinking pathway.

Main duties of the job

This role offers the opportunity to make a meaningful difference to people experiencing eating difficulties and the physical and psychological challenges that can accompany them. This work spans across a range of different services with varying levels of risk, as well as in-reach work during admissions. Working as a senior specialist clinician, you will provide expert nutritional support as part of a multidisciplinary team, helping individuals navigate recovery while managing their physical and psychological health needs.

The post combines direct patient care with service leadership, allowing you to influence care pathways, contribute to service development, provide specialist advice to colleagues and partner organisations, and deliver training across the wider system. The successful candidate will work autonomously, using advanced clinical judgement and strong therapeutic skills to build effective relationships with patients and carers, promote recovery-focused care, and ensure the highest standards of evidence‑based practice.

Job responsibilities

The successful applicant will work as an autonomous specialist dietitian across the Eating Disorder Pathway within ED-ITT, EDS and providing consultation to the NRMC. The role will span varying degrees of risk including those who present with complex mental health and medical needs, including risk of rapid physical deterioration, refeeding complications and mortality. The role spans both direct clinical intervention and wider service‑level consultation.

The selected applicant will work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team (MDT) alongside psychiatry, psychology, nursing, occupational therapy, health care assistants, GPs with specialist interests and other allied health professionals, contributing to integrated risk management and coordinated care planning across services. As the lead for dietetics, the applicant will hold professional responsibility for dietetic practice within the service, acting as the key source of specialist dietetic expertise and guidance.

The role includes contributing to policy development, care pathways, service improvement initiatives, clinical governance processes and implementation of evidence‑based practice in line with national standards and eating disorder guidance. The post holder will be expected to exercise a high level of clinical judgement, autonomy and decision‑making in situations where there may be conflicting clinical priorities, high levels of risk and complex ethical considerations.

The role will involve delivering training, supervision and consultation to other professionals to improve understanding and management of nutritional risk and eating disorders across the wider system. There is an expectation that the postholder will lead on this training. The post holder will maintain accurate clinical documentation, outcome monitoring and risk assessments, and contribute to audit, quality improvement and service evaluation activities.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Essential: BSc in Human Nutrition and Dietetics or related qualification. Significant relevant experience and/or evidence of MSc level study in a relevant area. Professional/Clinical knowledge acquired through degree plus specialist dietetic training to post graduate diploma level or equivalent plus significant, relevant experience. HCPC Registration. Evidence of ongoing professional development. Member of British Dietetic Association.
• Desirable: PENG clinical update. A teaching qualification or experience of teaching groups. Certification of insertion of NG tubes.

Skills

• Essential: An ability to be able to use highly developed interpersonal and communication skills to impact on the behaviour and views of clients with severely challenging, often life threatening behaviours on a frequent basis. Demonstrate a high level of empathy, self‑awareness and emotional resilience having to cope with emotionally demanding situations on a frequent basis. Able to use advanced analytical skills and to concentrate for prolonged periods during emotive and stressful situations. Ability to demonstrate a high level of time management and organisational skills. Able to work within codes of practice of HCPC, Occupational Standards, British Dietetic Association (BDA) and policies and procedures. Highly specialist skills demonstrating varied comprehensive clinical experience in order to deliver best practice for a range of complex conditions. Ability to undertake dietetic assessments, including assessing for refeeding risk, as well as offer treatment and intervention. Ability to obtain information from those who are ambivalent to change, or do not wish to share their intake or engagement with compensatory behaviours. Ability to compassionately challenge information provided that does not appear accurate. Ability to work across multiple services. An effective team worker who is empathetic and approachable. Proactive, with an ability to set up new initiatives. Flexible regarding duties and ability to cope with change.
• Desirable: Ability to frequently travel independent and in a timely manner between Livewell Southwest sites and community locations including areas not served by public transport.

Experience

• Essential: Experience of working with those who suffer from eating disorders and/or disordered eating, with various physical and psychological risks. Experience of working in a community eating disorder service. Experience of working with those who do not wish to have treatment. Experience of working with those who are at high risk of refeeding syndrome. Experience of working with those who are at high risk of an admission to either a medical or psychiatric Hospital secondary to their eating difficulties. Experience of working with those who are highly distressed. Experience of providing consultation and advice to the multi‑disciplinary team. Varied and comprehensive post‑graduate clinical experience across a range of clinical areas, including enteral feeding. Senior level experience of working in a multi‑disciplinary team. Experience of delivering in‑service training. Experience of interpreting and acting on complex clinical information including anthropometry, biochemistry, pharmacology and medical history to make decisions about client care. Evidence of active participation in audit activities in dietetic practice. Experience of dealing with distressed clients, carers or colleagues. Experience and competence in negotiating and recording aims of treatment and agreeing a plan of action with client/relatives/carers/medical staff.
• Desirable: Experience of leading and developing new initiatives/services. Competence and experience in advanced communication skills including negotiation, motivational interviewing and evoking behavioural change in complex cases. Experience of working in a mental health unit/ward/eating disorder unit. Experience and evidence of developing evidence based literature, guidelines and protocols for a range of more complex needs for a wide range of people e.g. clients with Mental Illness or neurological impairment, carers, general public and healthcare workers.

Knowledge

• Essential: Demonstrate specialist knowledge of Best Dietetic Practice in the treatment or management of nutritional needs. Evidence of an accurate up to date portfolio in order to demonstrate Continued Professional Development (CPD) lifelong learning and skills of reflective practice. Ability to deliver best practice for a range of more complex clinical conditions. Knowledge of Eating Disorders. Knowledge of MEEDS.
• Desirable: Membership of Specialist Interest Group. Knowledge of different mental health illnesses, the risks and treatment interventions. Knowledge of legislation that supports the rights of those with mental health illnesses such as Mental Health and Mental Capacity Act. Knowledge of the impact of trauma. Knowledge of how to use system one. Knowledge of the personalised care framework. Knowledge of the cycle of change. Knowledge of how to respond appropriately to physical and psychological risks, specific to eating disorders.

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. 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. Applicants must have current UK professional registration.