Animal Care Assistant - Merton animal hospital

Blue Cross UK; Greater London; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 31,000; Full time

Job summary

Join Blue Cross UK as an Animal Care Assistant at their Merton animal hospital. You will provide essential care for pets, support their owners, and work in a rewarding environment that prioritizes animal welfare and team wellbeing. Ideal candidates should have experience in veterinary support and excellent communication skills.

Benefits

38 days holiday, rising to 43 with service

Health cash plan

Free access to GP services

Pension scheme with enhanced contributions

Free physiotherapy advice

Qualifications

• Experience working in a veterinary practice or similar role desired.
• Good communication skills required.
• Ability to keep calm under pressure.

Responsibilities

• Provide care for pets including cleaning and feeding.
• Assist in reception duties and customer service.
• Manage laboratory samples and documentation.

Skills

Communication

Teamwork

Animal Handling

Education

Qualification in Animal Care

Tools

MS Office

Web-based databases

Job description

Animal Care Assistant - Merton animal hospital

Join to apply for the Animal Care Assistant - Merton animal hospital role at Blue Cross UK

Animal Care Assistant - Merton animal hospital

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Join to apply for the Animal Care Assistant - Merton animal hospital role at Blue Cross UK

Description

Interview date: Monday 23rd June 2025

By joining our animal hospital in Merton as an Animal Care Assistant, you’re joining a team who won the first BVA Wellbeing award for being a great place to work! If you’re passionate about animal welfare, working with the public and are wanting to make a difference every day – this is the role for you!

Application Deadline: 15 June 2025

Department: Veterinary Services

Location: Merton animal hospital

Compensation: £30,826 / year

Description

Contract: Permanent, full time
Salary: £26,208 plus £3,954 London Weighting Allowance per annum
Location: Merton animal hospital, London SW19 1BD
Closing date: Sunday 15th June 2025
Interview date: Monday 23rd June 2025

By joining our animal hospital in Merton as an Animal Care Assistant, you’re joining a team who won the first BVA Wellbeing award for being a great place to work! If you’re passionate about animal welfare, working with the public and are wanting to make a difference every day – this is the role for you!

More about the role

Since June 1999, we've been a cornerstone of the Merton community, delivering veterinary services to approximately 6,000 unique pets every year. From routine procedures like neutering to intricate surgeries and advanced diagnostics, our hospital offers a comprehensive range of treatments.

As an Animal Care Assistant (ACA), you have a key role in our fast-paced hospitals, providing a high standard of care to the pets in our hospitals and providing support to their owners. You’ll do this by providing the highest level of animal care and customer service with empathy and a non-judgmental mindset in all situations.

Each day will see you providing care to the pets in our hospitals which includes cleaning, feeding, exercising, grooming, laundry and administering treatment. Another part of this role is where you will be based on our reception, working with customers face to face, answering the phone, using the computer, dispensing medication and taking payments.

Our ACA's are responsible for managing the laboratory as part of their shifts so your duties will include processing and documenting all samples at the hospital. To do this, you will use our in house lab machines to run blood samples, staining and preparing microscope slides for inhouse analysis, perform urine testing, prepare samples for external analysis and maintain accurate records of sample handling and reporting.

This is full time role working 42 hours a week with a one hour paid lunch break on a rota to include weekends and public holidays. Due to the nature of the work of Blue Cross, and this post, it may be necessary to exceed these hours when the workload demands.

Let’s work together to see if this is the role for you!

About you

The ideal candidate for this role is someone who has previous experience in a veterinary support role which may have been in a vet practice, or kennel setting. As well as the practical animal handling skills, we would ideally like someone who has experience working in a busy reception alongside their animal care role who feels confident in both animal facing and customer facing environments, however this is not essential.

As mentioned in the 'More about the role' section, lab work is an important part of this position, therefore having an understanding of urinalysis and use of a centrifuge for example would be advantageous.

With great communication skills you will be able to speak to a wide variety of people including senior vets, members of the public and your team. Working in an animal hospital can involve supporting clients that are distressed and you will be working in an emotionally challenging environment therefore you will need the ability to keep calm under pressure and re-prioritise tasks where needed.

Knowledge, skills, and experience

• Experience working or volunteering in a veterinary practice or within a similar role
• Good communication skills, both written and verbal
• IT literate with MS Office and web-based databases and platforms
• The ability to demonstrate, understand and apply our Blue Cross values
  

Although not essential, it would be great if you also had:

• Experience within a reception or client care role
• Qualification in Animal Care or similar
• The ability to observe changes in animals health and wellbeing
• The ability to interact face to face with clients and visitors and communicate effectively with a range of people
  

How to apply
Click the apply button below and complete the online application process before the closing date on Sunday 15th June 2025. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive an overwhelming response.

Blue Cross benefits

Our people are the most important part of delivering our purpose. If it were not for their amazing efforts and commitment, we would not be able to make the difference that we do today.

In return, Blue Cross wants to ensure we provide you with the best working environment we can. We want you to be happy working for us and will do everything we can to make sure you are.

Our generous benefits package includes:

• Full time equivalent of 38 days holiday rising to 43 with service (including Bank Holidays)
• Programmes for physical and mental wellbeing support
• Free access to GP via MetLife- 24/7 GP services, private prescriptions and more for you and your family
• Free physiotherapy advice and face to face intervention
• Health cash plan
• Unlimited access to an employee assistance programme
• Pension scheme with enhanced employer contribution
• Professional fees paid with Continuing Professional Development and personal development support.
• Life assurance
• 20% discount on Pet Plan pet insurance
• Enhanced family friendly policies
• Recognition scheme
• Annual volunteer days
• Charity worker discounts across a variety of retailers

To read more about the benefits Blue Cross has to offer, please visit the 'why work for us' page on our website.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Entry level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Other

• Industries

  Non-profit Organizations

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