Community Dietitian

Nhsscotland; Glasgow; On-site; GBP 35,000 - GBP 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare organization in Scotland is seeking a Dietitian to provide expert clinical lead in elderly care and nutritional support. The candidate will have a strong focus on managing complex clinical caseloads within Care Homes, ensuring optimal nutritional care for residents. Responsibilities include evaluating dietary needs, conducting consultations, and providing education to staff and families. This role offers flexible working conditions with significant professional development opportunities.

Benefits

Minimum of 27 days annual leave

Membership of the NHS Pension Scheme

Development opportunities including study bursaries

Qualifications

• A minimum of four years post-qualification experience.
• Excellent knowledge of nutritional needs of older people.
• Experience of working with older people.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate and develop service provision within this speciality.
• Work autonomously with a complex clinical caseload.
• Contribute to professional and team clinical audit.

Skills

Communication skills

Nutritional assessment

Clinical knowledge

Team collaboration

Education

BSc Human Nutrition & Dietetics

Registered Dietitian

Tools

IT literate in word processing

PowerPoint

Job description

Overview

NHSGGC is one of the largest healthcare systems in the United Kingdom, employing approximately 40,000 staff across a wide range of clinical and non-clinical professions and roles. We deliver acute hospital, primary, community and mental health services to a population of over 1.15 million people, and to a wider population of 2.2 million when regional and national services are included.

The Role

Dietitians are health professionals, whose key role is to translate the science of nutrition into relevant and practical information, based on clinical evidence. The role of this post is to provide an expert clinical lead with a specialist interest in elderly care, nutritional support and dysphagia management. Responsibilities include providing assessment, advice, support and education of Care Homes Staff, relatives and carers across NHSGGC; providing professional support to specialist and accepting dietetic referrals onto clinical caseload from specialist care home colleagues. You will work as an autonomous clinician within the care homes, taking full responsibility for an identified caseload. You will liaise with multi-professional team members to evaluate medical, speech and language therapy, nursing and pharmacy needs; coordinate and evaluate the dietetic service provision in consultation with the Dietetic Manager for Community and Community Dietetic Team Leader. You will collaborate within all sectors of the NHS and with Local Authorities, Care Inspectorate and other agencies to ensure residents nutritional needs are interpreted fully.

Responsibilities

• Using Investigative practice, evaluate and develop service provision within this speciality.
• Work autonomously with a complex clinical caseload; applying specialist skills in a range of Care Home settings.
• Provide specialist assessment and consultation to Care Homes and specialist advice to staff, relatives and other disciplines.
• Lead the development and implementation of identified nutritional policies and procedures to facilitate delivery of evidence based practice in Care Homes relating to nutritional care across the NHSGG area.
• Work in collaboration and communicate advice on nutritional and clinical care in Care Homes to: Residents, Relatives, G.P’s, Primary and Secondary Care colleagues, AHP’s, Care Home Nurses, Care Home Managers & Staff and Catering Staff.
• Contribute to professional and team clinical audit and evidence based research and produce reports on specialist area.
• Facilitate education and development of staff within the multi-professional team.
• Provide an expert resource to other health care staff/patients/carers/other agencies.

Applicant requires minimum education to BSc Dietetics qualification, registration with Health Care Professionals Council, PVG membership scheme / Disclosure Scotland and a drivers’ licence is essential.

Duration, Location, and Working Pattern

• The base location for this role is Pollok Health Centre.
• You may be required to work across the south quadrant of Greater Glasgow & Clyde.
• The shift pattern for this post is five out of seven days a week.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as an autonomous practitioner taking full responsibility and legally accountable for professional decisions within scope of practice.
• Contribute to the assessment of clinical conditions, providing relevant dietetic treatment programmes and monitoring as appropriate.
• Deliver care in accordance with service standards, the Health Care Professions Council, Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics, Professional Body, Care Home Standards and local Standards and Policies.
• Assign highly developed skills and knowledge to establish professional competence and fitness to practice as a Dietitian working in a specialist area.
• Regular attendance and contribution at team and professional meetings, including rotational chair.
• Demonstrate continued professional development and reflect on clinical practice to identify development needs in specialist area.
• Peer review and reach clinical consensus where research evidence is unavailable.
• Highlight to Team leader / manager any issue impacting an ability to deliver equitable services.
• Embrace opportunities to extend scope of practice.
• Act independently to assess and analyse clinical and non-clinical information to determine need for dietetic intervention providing nutritional advice and care planning for patients in Care Homes with a range of complex medical and social needs.
• Plan, implement, evaluate, treat and progress patient care to maximise rehabilitation potential including discharge decisions from dietetic care.
• Develop understanding of the medical and health care needs of Care Home residents and lead and influence the design of educational care packages for staff and health professionals.
• Take responsibility and gather information for evaluating workload for specialist care area and discuss with Team Lead / Manager to gain support and direction.
• Prioritise own workload including competing demands from clinical and non-clinical commitments to ensure quality of care in specialist area.

Knowledge, training, qualifications and/or experience required to do the job

• BSc Human Nutrition & Dietetics or equivalent
• Registered Dietitian with Health & Care Professional Council
• Member of British Dietetic Association
• Preferably Member of BDA Special Interest Group
• Working towards recognised post graduate qualification in an area of practice e.g. Advanced Diploma in Dietetic Practice, Diploma in Diabetes Care or other accredited study
• Basic introduction to Counselling Skills and Behaviour Modification / Motivational Interviewing
• Clinical Education Training
• Health Improvement / Promotion Training
• Ideally a minimum of four years post qualification experience
• At least one year undertaking additional responsibilities or developing an area of expertise
• Audit / Research experience and evidence of impact on practice
• Record of CPD relevant to Care of Older People and nutritional support
• Experience of working with older people
• Experience of working as part of an MDT
• Excellent knowledge of nutritional needs of older people
• Broad clinical knowledge across a range of conditions, including diabetes, chronic disease management, enteral feeding
• Knowledge of the range of nutritional assessment methodologies to assess and monitor patients
• Excellent communication (verbal and written), negotiation, motivation, and networking skills
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills
• IT literate in word processing / power point / email / internet

What We Offer

We offer a wide range of supportive policies designed to enhance your employee journey, including an Employee Assistance Programme, Cycle to Work Scheme, bursary scheme and extensive learning and development opportunities. As an NHS Scotland employee, you will be entitled to:

• A minimum of 27 days annual leave, increasing with length of service, plus public holidays
• Membership of the NHS Pension Scheme, including life insurance benefits
• Development opportunities including study bursaries, e-learning and classroom-based courses
• Enhanced pay for working public holidays
• NHS discounts on a wide range of goods and services
• Confidential employee support and assistance, including counselling and psychological therapies

Interested?

If you would like to find out more, we would love to hear from you.

For an informal discussion, please contact

Advanced Practice Care Home Dietitian, Gillian Mackay, [e-mail], 07977272203

Important notices

This post may close early due to volume of response. Applications will be reviewed as they come in. We will not be able to provide shortlisting feedback. From 1 April 2026, the Agenda for Change full-time working week will reduce from 37 hours to 36 hours. Part-time hours will be pro-rated. A corresponding increase in the hourly rate will apply, ensuring that overall pay remains unchanged. NHSGGC supports flexible working where service needs allow and encourages applications from all sections of the community. We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. NHSGGC is a Forces Friendly Employer and welcomes applications from the Armed Forces Community. Candidates must provide authentic responses to all application questions. The use of AI or other third-party assistance to draft responses is strongly discouraged. For portal issues, contact the Recruitment Service.