Food First Team

Contact us

You can contact our service Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm.

Telephone number - food.first@nhs.net
Email address - food.first@nhs.net
Referral information
Information for care homes
Information for healthcare professionals

Welcome to our service

A team of registered dietitians, assistant practitioners and a data analyst working across Luton and South Bedfordshire towards a collective vision of sharing our specialist knowledge to empower others to make nutrition and hydration a priority.

We are passionate about using food based approaches to managing malnutrition and work with a range of health and social care staff to improve people’s access to safe and evidence based nutrition and hydration care. This includes working with primary care (such as GPs) to support the appropriate prescribing of nutritional products. We also provide an enhanced service to care homes for older people which includes a training and accreditation programme.

A personalised food based approach for the management of malnutrition is encouraged and based on 3 principles:

Fortified diet. Adding extra energy and protein to meals/snacks to increase nutrient density and not portion size.
Nutrient dense snacks. For a little and often approach for those with a small appetite.
Nourishing drinks. Nutrient dense drinks that can be tailored to people’s preferences.

Food First resources

Dietary and nutritional advice sheets and watch videos on how to make nourishing drinks.

Information for care homes

The Food First Team supports care homes for older people in Luton and South Bedfordshire. The enhanced service aims to support early intervention nutritional care to a population that can be at risk of malnutrition. The team deliver a unique rolling training, audit and accreditation programme to support care homes deliver nutritional care in line with CQC regulations and NICE Quality Standard 24.

More recently the team have been involved in monthly Virtual multi-disciplinary meetings as part of the enhanced health in care homes framework and have had a greater role in palliative care planning and supporting the development of advanced care plans.

Training and audit programme

We provide a training and audit programme to care homes in West-Mid Bedfordshire.

The clinical dietetic service is provided by Bedford Hospital. Visit the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust for more information.

Information for healthcare professionals

Prescription oral nutritional supplements (ONS) for adults

Oral Nutritional Supplements (ONS) can be a short term option for people who meet the Advisory Committee for Borderline Substances (ACBS) criteria and are unable to meet their nutritional needs using food alone. We encourage anyone with concerns about malnutrition or their nutritional intake to contact their GP or another healthcare professional involved in their care.

Anyone issued with ONS should have been screened using a validated nutrition screening tool such as: Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool ‘MUST’ or the Patients Association Nutrition Checklist and identified at high nutritional risk.

We usually recommend food based approaches (where appropriate) to be implemented for at least 4 weeks before considering prescription options- see the Food First Resources page.

Please note that a nutrition goal should be agreed with any prescription of ONS and monitored with an expected stop date (usually 12 weeks of first issue).

Training

We offer training sessions on malnutrition and hydration support to any local health and social care professionals, domiciliary care providers, charity groups and patients groups upon request.

For information about training email food.first@nhs.net

Referral

We do not accept self-referrals.

We accept referrals from:

healthcare professionals
care homes in Luton and South Bedfordshire

If you are:

a local healthcare professional wanting to refer someone who does not live in a care home, email eec.beds.nutrition@nhs.net for the current referral form
care home staff in Luton and South Bedfordshire wanting to refer a client, email food.first@nhs.net for the current referral form

Please note incomplete referral forms will not be accepted. All referrals must also include a 3 day food and fluid chart.

Downloads

Food First Team Referral Criteria

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