Catering Assistant

Wwl; Leigh; On-site; GBP 24,000; Part time

Job summary

An established industry player in healthcare is seeking enthusiastic individuals to join their dynamic team as Retail Catering Assistants. This part-time role offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the well-being of patients, staff, and visitors by providing excellent customer service and ensuring high standards of food safety. With varied shifts and a supportive work environment, you will engage in food preparation, cash handling, and maintaining cleanliness. Join a team that values its staff and offers career progression opportunities within the NHS, making a meaningful impact in your community while enjoying a range of attractive benefits.

Benefits

Excellent Pension & Life Assurance Package

Annual leave entitlements (27 to 33 days)

Paid occupational leave

Training opportunities

Health and wellbeing support

Career Progression opportunities

Salary sacrifice schemes

NHS Discount schemes

Long Service Awards

Qualifications

• No formal qualifications required; training provided.
• CIEHO Level II Food Safety is a requirement.

Responsibilities

• Prepare food, handle cash, and maintain cleanliness.
• Ensure compliance with food safety standards and stock management.
• Serve meals and assist with patient menu choices.

Skills

Basic literacy

Basic numeracy

Teamwork

Food safety knowledge

Cash handling

Cleaning machinery operation

Willingness to learn

Education

CIEHO Level II Food Safety Qualification

Tools

Retail tills

Dishwashing machinery

Job description

Main area Estates and Facilities Grade NHS AfC: Band 2

Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 30 hours per week (3 positions are available, 1 working 30 hours a week, Monday - Friday, 6 hours a day, between the hours of 7.00 am and 8.00 pm. 1 post working 20 hours per week, 4 hours per day Monday - Friday, 11.00 am - 3.00 pm. 1 post working 12 hours, 6 hours Saturday and 6 hours Sunday, between the hours of 7.00 am and 8.00 pm. The rota pattern will be explained on interview.)

Job ref 302-24-6849308E

Site Leigh Infirmary Town Leigh Salary £23,615 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 10/01/2025 23:59

Job overview

We are looking for individuals who are enthusiastic and are interested in being part of this dynamic team delivering a high-quality service to our patients, staff and visitors.

Our Retail assistant role is very varied, and a typical day could consist of serving customers, taking orders & payments, using the till system and cash handling, basic food preparation and food handling.

We welcome applications from those who are enthusiastic and self-motivated with a passion for general customer service duties and who take pride in their work and are responsive to the needs of the patients, visitors and staff through the delivery of excellent customer service at all times.

Please note this vacancy may close before the advertised closing date if a sufficient number of suitable applications are received.

Main duties of the job

Required to undertake a wide range of duties including food preparation, cleaning, cash handling and meal service duties within the kitchen and our retail units.

The role of the Retail Catering Assistant is to carry out all duties to a required standard for the provision of the retail services within the Hospital.

Ensuring retail stock is well presented, with daily monitoring of product expiry dates & appropriate stock rotation, identifying products for replenishment & reporting any price/product changes.

Assisting with simple food preparation duties as instructed.

Completion of audit forms associated with food safety, financial policy & procedures.

Working for our organisation

Choose Well – Choose WWL

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are the proud providers of acute hospital and community services to the people of the Wigan Borough and surrounding areas. At WWL, we value our staff believing that ‘happy staff, makes for happy patients’. We have a recognised track record in staff engagement, and living our values.

WWL are committed to placing the patient at the heart of everything we do, and in the provision of safe, effective care that acknowledges and ensures dignity. With this in mind we are seeking to recruit people who share our values and beliefs.

Good basic salary plus an attractive package of benefits which include:

• Excellent Pension & Life Assurance Package (over 20% employer contribution)
• Excellent annual leave entitlements 27 to 33 days per annum dependent upon service.
• Paid occupational maternity, paternity, and adoption leave dependent upon service.
• Training opportunities and eLearning resources.
• Health and wellbeing support.
• Career Progression opportunities within Estates & Facilities and the NHS.
• Access to salary sacrifice schemes for items such as lease vehicles and buy a bike schemes.
• NHS Discount schemes to access hundreds of discounts and savings from everything to High Street Stores to restaurants, family holidays and more.
• Long Service Awards.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Planning and Organisational Duties

• Work to standard operational procedures.
• Preparation of food, this could be within high risk chilled areas, to specified recipes.
• Ensuring labelling of products is correct eg product name dates.
• After training could be required to produce cooked foods e.g. soups, gravy, fried, bacon etc.
• Performance of duties in accordance with approved methods, frequencies and standards, adhering to strict food safety standards.
• Meeting deadlines for production of meals as part of a team.
• May be required to take patient menu choices at ward level, offer alternatives where required.
• Required to serve meals at ward level to patients, or in retail outlets to staff & visitors, occasional delivery of buffets & functions outside the Department.
• Use of equipment, machinery and cleaning materials once trained, ability to spot defects with fabric or machinery and report to Supervisor.
• Significant cleaning duties are associated with this post including cleaning of pans, cutlery, crockery, machinery, cooking equipment and floors walls and work surfaces.
• Recording temperatures and other key audit requirements onto the appropriate monitoring forms, reporting to Supervisors where particularly temperatures may be outside required limits.
• Have high standards of personal Hygiene and follow the Departmental uniform code of practice.

Communications and Key Working Relationships

• Required to provide information on menus to patients, staff & visitors eg allergen information.
• May be required to undertake patient satisfaction surveys at ward level.
• Answer the telephone and take messages from wards on additional meals required, pass these on in a timely manner to Supervisors.
• Communicate with colleagues to ensure meal service proceeds efficiently.
• Answer questions during Food safety audits from external auditors eg Environmental Health Officer.

Responsibility for Finance

• Required to handle cash, using retail tills, or emptying vending machines.
• Use of bar codes, card readers, and security tags.
• May be required to open & secure Department.
• Maintain stock control.
• Follow Departmental Procedures for cash handling, managing balances, receipts, discount buttons and meal deals.
• Accurate recording of information onto audit sheets and correct bagging and tagging of cash & receipts for delivery to General Offices.
• Compliance with Trust and Local procedures.

Person specification

Qualifications

• No formal qualifications are required: an induction period, on the job instruction & additional training will be given on Food handling and cleaning. This will include COSHH training/ minor cooking skills and attendance at a CIEHO Food Safety level II course as a requirement.
• CIEHO Level II Food Safety Qualification.

Experience

• Previous Experience not required.
• Previous Catering Experience.
• Previous Cooking Experience.

Skills

• Basic literacy and numeracy required.
• Ability to record information onto forms, ability to work as a team.
• An understanding of working to deadlines.
• Willingness to learn new skills during training.
• Previous use of cleaning machinery, Dishwashing or machinery or other Catering equipment.

Knowledge

• Understanding of how important food safety is.
• An awareness of the hospital and what activities may occur.
• Knowledge of the Hospital site, or Catering Department.

Additional

• Working unsociable hours, mobility to meet requirements of the service.
• Flexibility to provide cover for colleagues.
• Could be expected to work in cold rooms, hot and noisy environments.
• Speak English to an appropriate standard relevant to their role, i.e. with confidence and accuracy, using correct sentence structures and vocabulary, and without hesitation.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Name Katy Munson Job title Catering Manager Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 01942 264451 Additional information

Available between the hours of 8.30am - 4.30pm.

If you have problems applying, contact

Address Buckingham Row
Brick Kiln Lane
Wigan
WN1 1XX
Telephone [phone]