Catering Assistant

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust; Farnham; On-site; GBP 18,000 - 21,000; Full time

Job summary

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust in Farnham is seeking a Catering Assistant to support a patient- and staff-focused catering service. You will work as part of a team to serve meals, assist in food preparation and deliver meals to wards and dining areas.

Applicants should follow hygiene standards and be prepared for training; catering experience is desirable. The role is customer-led in a busy hospital environment, where friendly, efficient service makes a real difference to patients, staff

Qualifications

• Good level of literacy, numeracy and comprehension.
• Foundation Certificate in Food Hygiene or working towards it.
• Health, Safety, COSHH and food/kitchen hygiene training.

Responsibilities

• Prepare food service areas and equipment for use.
• Serve food and drinks in patient/staff dining outlets and on the ward assembly belt.
• Deliver and collect meal trolleys to/from wards and departments.
• Ensure crockery and cutlery are available during service hours.
• Work as part of a team to maintain hygiene and service standards in a busy hospital

Skills

Kitchen/Restaurant experience

Customer care

Teamwork

Communication

Busy environment

Education

Foundation Certificate in Food Hygiene

Job description

If you are you looking for an opportunity to make a difference and work in a fast paced, highly rewarding department, our Catering team at Farnham Hospital is recruiting a Catering Assistant to assist in the provision of a highly professional and customer focused catering service to all patients, staff and visitors.

The ideal candidate will be willing to work as part of team, as well as confident to carry out individual duties. You will be interacting with a high number of people each day, playing a vital part in making their visit as comfortable as possible.

Due to the nature of the role, you will be required to adhere to departmental standards and food hygiene regulations. You will also act at all times in a manner that upholds the Trust's values, working as part of a team to ensure efficiency and excellent customer care. Catering experience is desirable along with a certificate in food safety though this is not essential, as full training will be given.

As part of the recruitment process you will complete a Maths and English assessment, in order to progress to interview you will need to pass this test.

Please note that this role is not eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK for the full duration of the post.

Main duties of the job

• The role requires that the job holder follows the duties laid out by the Patient Service Supervisor in the day-to-day operational management of the service.
• You'll be expected to treat visitors and staff in a welcoming, friendly and efficient manner, whilst maintaining the highest standards of cleanliness and hygiene. You'll be working as part of a motivated team.
• On a typical day as a Catering Assistant you can expect to serve food and drinks in patient or staff dining outlets, assist in food preparation, support wards in delivering their food service, undertake cashier duties, and proactively support continued innovation and development of the department.
• The job holder will assist the Supervisor to expand and/or make recommendations for improving standards and enhancing the service to all customers. This would be through quality initiatives and by looking at ways of maximising good customer care and income generation.
• You'll need to be aware of menu content whilst understanding the importance of portion control, food presentation and customer care. In addition, you must ensure that the privacy and dignity of visitors, staff and patients is respected at all times.

About us

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is committed to being an inclusive and disability confident employer and has been awarded the Gold for the Armed Forces Employment Recognition Scheme. We provide first class development opportunities for all staff and have a wide range of professional, management and leadership, and clinical skills training available.

Here at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, we know how important it is to have a healthy work life balance; this benefits not only individuals but the patients we care for too.

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service and its users.

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Job responsibilities

Undertake all duties relating to food service including:

• Prepare food service areas and equipment e.g. placing equipment ready for use (woks, fryers etc.)
• Serve food and drinks in patient/staff dining outlets and on the patient meal assembly belt
• Ensure a full supply of crockery and cutlery to the restaurant during service hours
• Deliver and collect meal trolleys to/from wards and departments
• Deliver catering supplies to wards and departments including call orders
• Menu collation, picking of all ward food according to menu choice and record information

Undertake preparation of all food stuffs:

• Assist in food preparation e.g. peeling vegetables, prepping salad items, traying up and labelling items
• Assessment of good portion control, manage food waste and appropriate record keeping
• Decant chilled food
• Regeneration of food and garnishing
• Adhere strictly to standard recipes and production methods, check food and beverages served, for quantity, quality and appearance and maintain correct standards of hygiene and temperature control as per HACCP

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if enough applications have been received.

For more information please see attached job description and person specification

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Good level of basic education - able to demonstrate literacy, numeracy, and comprehension skills.
• Foundation Certificate in Food Hygiene or working towards it.
• Health and Safety, COSHH and Moving and Handling and Food/Kitchen hygiene training.

Experience

• Experience of working in a Kitchen/Restaurant environment.
• Customer care experience.
• Experience of working in a service led and customer focused environment.

Skills

• Good communication skills - able to read and understand written and verbal communication and instruction.
• Ability to work in a very busy environment.
• Able to plan and prioritise time and workload.
• Ability to work as part of a team and independently.
• Ability to respond quickly to problems.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.