Highly Specialist Dietitian – Forensic Mental health | Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

The Highly Specialist Dietitian will be responsible for the integration and provision of a comprehensive and quality dietetic service for Forensic mental health in patient service users.

• The post holder will use expert knowledge and experience to educate and support patients and their carers regarding their dietary management and sustaining behavioral change.
• The post holder will provide specialist nutritional and dietetic training, support, clinical assessment and education to nurses and other members of the multi-disciplinary teams (MDT).
• The Highly Specialist Dietitian will contribute to further service development, audit, policy writing and lead on delegated service development projects.
• To provide a comprehensive, effective, evidence based dietetic service to a range patients referred to the dietetic services.
• To demonstrate highly specialist knowledge in the area of Dietetics, underpinned by current evidence based practice.
• To work autonomously to provide expert nutritional and dietetic advice to patients referred to the service under the care of MDT, in house GP’s and other healthcare professionals.
• To work in a variety of locations including in-patient forensic mental health bedded units including The Bracton Centre and Memorial Hospital.
• To actively lead on the education and clinical updating of all medical, nursing and support staff (this includes dietetic staff & students), in the area of speciality.
• Be responsible for the full dietetic care of patients referred to the serviceincluding biochemical and anthropometric monitoring and the assessment ofnutritional status and requirements based on anthropometric, clinical, and biochemical parameters.
• To make highly specialist clinical decisions following assessment of complex cases by calculating and interpreting nutritional requirements and advising on the most appropriate method of nutrition support.
• To provide and coordinate a highly specialised clinical dietetic caseload within the Forensic directorate.
• To coordinate the management of the caseload and clinical reviews across the community and transition to services in and out of borough.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Care

Further detailed information relating to the role and responsibilities can be found in the attached supporting documentation

This advert closes on Wednesday 13 May 2026

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

Disability Confident

About Disability Confident

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.