Specialist Mental Health Dietician

Specialist Mental Health Dietician

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 22 February 2026.

This role is offered on a permanent basis. The hours are part-time, 30 hours per week.

The main responsibility of this post is to provide clinical dietetic services to the wards at Wotton Lawn and Charlton Lane Hospitals, Berkeley House LD inpatient unit, and Laurel House & Honeybourne Recovery Units.

• Work within professional guidelines and policies to support patients with highly complex needs.
• Provide supervision to Dietetics students and engage in peer review sessions with other clinicians within Gloucestershire Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust.
• Be recognised as an expert within their area, working in partnership with others internally and externally to develop their defined area of service.
• Develop the knowledge, skills and awareness of partners both within the Trust and outside.

• Provide specialist nutrition advice/input and training throughout mental health and learning disabilities (LD) services within the Trust.
• Provide a Trust-wide Nutrition and Dietetic Service for mental health and LD and work as an autonomous practitioner and with supervision from the lead Dietitian.
• Work with catering services to ensure the Trust's catering provisions are fit for purpose and meet national guidelines for hospital food standards.
• Provide dietetic assessments and interventions to individuals or groups of clients with mental illness or learning disabilities.
• Provide clinical supervision and support to Dietetic Students.
• Carry out delegated tasks in policy and service development reviews.

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

To deliver a Dietetic service, ensuring that it is evidence based and in line with clinical governance requirements.

To ensure that patients/clients are involved in the planning and prioritisation of their care plans wherever possible.

To demonstrate a high level of clinical effectiveness, using evidence-based practice, adapting practice to meet individual patients circumstances; including due regard for cultural and linguistic differences, and by evaluating outcomes.

To provide specialist advice to others regarding the management and care of patients/clients with nutritional difficulties.

To plan and prioritise workload, exercising professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients with nutritional difficulties.

To use advanced communication/behaviour change skills and motivational techniques to negotiate with clients and carers the necessary changes to their diet.

• To overcome resistance to dietary change by motivating and educating clients and carers with the appropriate…