Catering Compliance Officer

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust; Ashford; On-site; GBP 27,000 - 31,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional health service provider in Ashford seeks a Catering Compliance Officer to support community health teams. Candidates will need proven experience in catering compliance, strong leadership, and communication skills. This role requires a commitment to patient care and ongoing improvement in service quality. Working with passionate professionals, you will ensure healthy, safe food practices within the NHS. This is a full-time secondment opportunity offering £27,485 to £30,162 pro rata per annum.

Qualifications

• Recognised certification in food safety, catering, and allergen management.
• Proven experience in office systems and leading teams in pressured environments.
• Basic experience with financial systems and report writing.

Responsibilities

• Support NHS in delivering great patient care.
• Contribute expertise to NHS teams for excellent patient experience.
• Ensure compliance with NHS cleanliness standards.

Skills

Advanced use of Microsoft Office

Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Ability to manage staff

Problem-solving abilities

Excellent interpersonal skills

Education

Diploma of higher education Foundation degree

Certificate in food safety and allergen management

Higher National Diploma (HND) or equivalent

Tools

Microsoft Office

Audit tools

NHS specific IT systems

Job description

Catering Compliance Officer

The closing date is 04 January 2026

The NHS is changing. More emphasis on community-based care means there's never been a better time to join us.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and adaptable Catering Compliance Officer to join our professional team.

We're a close team but we're never exclusive, if you can bring a professional approach and fresh ideas we would love to hear from you.

Please note, this vacancy does not meet the criteria for skilled worker sponsorship and therefore, we are unable to accept applications from candidates that cannot provide documentary evidence of right to work in the United Kingdom.

Main duties of the job

Could you use your skills and experience to support the NHS to deliver great patient care? Great patient care needs great people to support clinical teams. That's where you come in.

We're always looking for enthusiastic, responsive, and adaptable people to join our outstanding trust. This role is an important one as you'll be using your knowledge, experience and expertise to support to our hard-working frontline NHS teams.

We put patients first and we expect all of our colleagues to do the same, so although NHS experience isn't a requirement for this role you’ll need to share our passion for delivering excellent patient care and keep that passion at the forefront of your professional activity at all times.

The challenges come thick and fast in this role but you’ll know that your input is contributing to the excellent experience our patients and service users have every day.

About us

Rated ‘outstanding’ by the CQC, we’ve got a passion for delivering high standards of patient care and excellent services to improve the health of our communities. To do this we need outstanding people who share our values compassionate Aspirational Responsive Excellent.

We know a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion leads to better patient care and a happier workforce. We pride ourselves in being diverse and welcome applications from people with varied backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.

We ask for information about your protected characteristics on our application forms. This isn’t visible to anyone involved with shortlisting or interviewing you, except when you choose to be considered under the guaranteed interview scheme due to disability. Short listers will see two ticks alongside your application to ensure they apply the principles of the scheme to your submission.

The data we collect helps us to ensure we are attracting diversity in our applicants, that all our colleagues have equitable access to career opportunities and supports us on our journey to being a Great Place to Work.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want you to be able to work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you. Talk to us about a flexible working arrangement that won’t involve sacrificing time for personal interests or family commitments. We’ll support you to work flexibly in a way that will suits us both.

See where you can go with KCHFTcareer pathways.

Job responsibilities

Please note: at this stage, the role is open only to colleagues currently employed within Kent and Medway NHS Trusts and the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB). Nursing vacancies are also open to Student Nurses and Newly Qualified Nurses.

As a community Trust many of our roles require individuals to be able to drive to perform their duties. As such you will be asked to confirm you have a full UK driving licence where driving is a requirement of the role to be able to proceed with your application. We are committed to supporting candidates with disabilities into employment, if you are unable to drive due to a disability, please contact the Recruitment Team via [e-mail] quoting the vacancy reference number so we can support you further.

The job description and person specification gives you all the information you need about this role. Please look carefully at the criteria in the person specification and tell us what you have done that shows you meet this in your application. If you need an application form in an alternative format please let our recruitment team know. All information you supply on your application should, to the best of your knowledge, be true and accurate.

Still have questions? The recruiting manager would love to hear from you, their contact details can be found in the job advert.

We can get a lot of applications for some roles so to be in with the best chance of being shortlisted please make sure you apply as soon as possible. A vacancy may close early if there is a lot of interest in the job.

At KCHFT we strongly encourage colleagues in clinical and non-clinical roles who have direct or social contact with patients to be fully vaccinated. In this way we will be doing all we can to ensure your safety and that of your colleagues and the patients we serve.

Find out more about the community difference here.

Good luck! We cant wait to meet you and welcome you to #teamKCHFT, #cometocommunity.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Diploma of higher education Foundation degree
• Higher National Diploma (HND) NVQ level 5 or equivalent
• Recognised certification in food safety, catering, and allergen management
• Certificate in management or equivalent level 4 qualification
• Level 2 qualification in cleaning and support services
• Certificate to deliver food safety training

Experience

• Proven experience in office systems, with advanced use of Microsoft Office, i.e. MS Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel
• Sound judgement and logical approach to complex situations, with ability to determine solutions
• Practical application of HR practices policies and procedures
• Basic experience of a financial system
• Leading teams in busy and pressurised environments
• Experience of carrying out audits & of using electronic audit tools
• Experience in report writing
• HACCP/SFBB certification and implementation experience
• NHS specific IT system experience
• Understanding of NHS Community Services

Special knowledge and expertise

• HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) and SFBB (Safer Food, Better Business)
• In depth knowledge of the service, site and users
• Proven ability to manage staff
• Handling confidential and sensitive information in accordance with IG
• Knowledge of PLACE
• Knowledge and experience of NHS Cleanliness standards
• Understanding of COSHH and Health and Safety procedures
• Knowledge of HACCP/SFBB
• Knowledge of allergen management and prevention
• Knowledge of IPC
• An understanding of the NHS current agenda and challenges

Practical/intellectual skills

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate and work effectively with a wide range of people from different backgrounds at all levels of seniority
• Ability to record accurate minutes of meetings and present to a high standard
• Proven standard of word processing skills, with a high standard of presentation and accuracy
• The ability to plan and organise own workload without direct supervision
• The ability to be innovative, objective as well as logical in resolving problems
• The ability to maintain a high level of performance and meeting of deadlines even when faced with conflicting priorities of others
• Ability to learn from mistakes as a positive learning opportunity and encourage others to do the same
• The ability to prioritise and balance a range of competing tasks to deliver to agreed timescales

Personal attributes

• Ability to apply a common sense and logical approach to identify key or underlying issues in difficult situations and use initiative to solve problems
• Ability to deal with distressing or emotional situations and discussions objectively and with emotional intelligence
• Ability to travel to diverse sites

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.

Employer name

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Trinity House, Eureka Park, 110-120 Upper Pemberton

£27,485 to £30,162 a year pro rata per annum

Contract

Secondment

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

846-7697885-EP

Job locations

Trinity House, Eureka Park, 110-120 Upper Pemberton