Group Manager - South West

Chartwells Schools; London Borough of Ealing; On-site; GBP 31,000 - 37,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary: £34,000 per annum

Term Time Only contract

Mon–Fri working

Work-life balance

Career development

Progression opportunities

PerksAtWork

Training & development

Pension contributions

Job summary

Chartwells State Schools is seeking a Group Manager to oversee a portfolio of state school catering contracts across Ealing, Reading, Slough, Southampton and Portsmouth. You will lead and develop Unit Managers and Supervisors, ensuring sites are resourced, compliant and commercially managed while keeping teams engaged and clients satisfied.

The role covers multiple locations with a Monday–Friday pattern during term time.

Qualifications

• Multi-site operational management experience within catering or similar service-led environment.
• Proven experience of leading and developing successful teams.
• Strong people management and communication skills.
• Good commercial awareness.
• Ability to work independently across a geographically spread portfolio.
• Good IT and organisational skills.
• Catering or chef experience would be an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop your teams, ensuring sites are fully staffed and training is provided.
• Drive operational excellence, review standards, improve productivity and ensure safe food delivery.
• Build strong client relationships with regular meetings and issue resolution.
• Manage performance commercially, support labour planning and financial controls.
• Maintain high standards of food, nutrition and allergens across the portfolio.
• Create engaging pupil experiences and support theme days and tasting initiatives.
• Keep health, safety and compliance at the heart of operations.

Skills

Multi-site management

People development

Client relationships

Commercial awareness

Independent working

IT skills

Strong communication

Catering experience

Job description

Group Manager – Chartwells State Schools

Salary: £34,000 per annum

Contract: Term Time Only

Location: Mobile role covering Ealing, Reading, Slough, Southampton & Portsmouth

Working pattern: Monday to Friday

Are you an experienced multi-site manager who loves developing people, building great client relationships and delivering outstanding food and service?

We have an exciting opportunity for a Group Manager to join Chartwells, supporting a portfolio of state schools across Ealing, Reading, Slough, Southampton and Portsmouth.

As Group Manager, you'll take responsibility for a group of school catering contracts, supporting Unit Managers and Supervisors to deliver consistently high standards. You'll ensure sites are well resourced, compliant and commercially managed, while keeping our teams engaged and our clients happy.

What you'll be doing

No two days will be quite the same. You'll be out and about across your schools, supporting your teams and making sure we're delivering a fantastic service.

You'll

• Lead, coach and develop your teams, ensuring sites are fully staffed, colleagues receive the right training and managers have clear development plans.
• Drive operational excellence, reviewing standards across your schools, improving productivity and ensuring our food offer is delivered safely and consistently.
• Build strong client relationships, holding regular meetings, resolving issues quickly and identifying opportunities to continually improve our service.
• Manage performance commercially, supporting effective labour planning, financial controls and initiatives to minimise food waste and improve performance.
• Maintain high standards of food, nutrition and allergens, coaching teams and ensuring consistency across the portfolio.
• Create brilliant experiences for pupils, supporting theme days, engagement activities and initiatives that encourage children to explore new tastes, flavours and cultures.
• Keep health, safety, food safety and compliance at the heart of everything you do.

More about you

We're looking for someone who is confident managing multiple locations and knows how to get the best from people.

You'll Ideally Have

• Multi-site operational management experience within catering, foodservice, retail or a similar service-led environment
• Proven experience of leading and developing successful teams
• Strong people management and communication skills
• The confidence to build effective relationships with clients and senior stakeholders
• Good commercial awareness
• The ability to work independently across a geographically spread portfolio
• Good IT and organisational skillsi>
• Catering or chef experience would be an advantage.

Why join us?

Chartwells is part of Compass Group UK & Ireland and provides catering and support services across the education sector, serving pupils and students across primary and secondary schools, academies, independent schools, colleges and universities.

You'll Also Benefit From

• £34,000 per annum
• Term Time Only contract
• Monday to Friday working
• Excellent work-life balance and sociable working hours
• Career development through our Career Pathways programme
• Opportunities to progress across Compass Group
• Access to PerksAtWork offers
• A wide range of training and development programmes
• Pension contribution

About Us

Part of Compass Group UK&I, Lodestone House is the leading provider of catering and support services to the education sector. For over a quarter of a century, Lodestone House has been focusing on helping those in education to build strong bodies, sharp minds and lead long healthy lives. Every week, Lodestone House serves millions of nutritious and delicious meals to pupils and students in primary and secondary schools, academies, independent schools, colleges, and universities across the UK.

Lodestone House is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expect all employees to share this commitment. Any offer of employment will be subject to successfully completing pre-employment checks, including an enhanced DBS disclosure and a Children's Barred List check. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and we ask applicants to declare all previous convictions and cautions in order to assess their suitability to work with children.

Compass Group UK&I is committed to fostering an environment where every individual can truly be themselves at work and has equal opportunities to advance in their careers. We strive to build a culture that respects and celebrates the unique talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and abilities of all our team members. We want our colleagues to feel valued, empowered to reach their full potential, and to thrive - because diversity is our strength!