Nursery Cook

Action for Children; Essex; On-site; GBP 27,000; Part time

Job summary

A leading childcare organization is seeking a part-time Nursery Cook to prepare nutritious meals for children. The role involves planning menus, managing kitchen operations, and ensuring high hygiene and safety standards. Ideal candidates will have culinary experience, excellent organizational skills, and a basic Food Hygiene certificate. This rewarding position allows you to make a positive impact on children's nutrition in a nurturing environment.

Benefits

33 days leave per year (pro rata)

24/7 confidential helpline for support

Professional training and development

Pension with employer contribution

Qualifications

• Experience in a similar role working in a catering environment.
• Excellent organisational skills.
• A passion for cooking and menu development.

Responsibilities

• Plan and prepare nutritious, child-friendly meals.
• Ensure compliance with food hygiene and safety standards.
• Manage kitchen stock levels and food orders.

Skills

Culinary Experience

Food Handling

Food Preparation Experience

Sanitation

Education

Basic Food Hygiene certificate – Level 3

Job description

Location: Witham Essex

Salary: £26,100 per annum (pro rata)

Contract / Hours: Fixed Term / Part Time 35 hours per week (from March 2026)

Closing date: Midnight on 11 December 2025

Benefits

• 33 days leave per year (pro rata)
• 24/7 confidential helpline to trained counsellors for emotional wellbeing or mental health support
• 8 sessions of in‑person, phone or online counselling or CBT
• Staff discounts portal and blue light card with 15 000 retailers
• Salary finance: access to financial advice and the ability to manage savings or loans directly from your salary
• Childcare discount: 60% off childcare within our nurseries and out‑of‑school clubs
• Up to 3 days dependency leave to care for dependents in an emergency
• Paid maternity, adoption and paternity leave
• Professional qualifications and excellent training / development opportunities
• Pension with up to 7% employer contribution and included life assurance cover

About Spring Nurseries

Imagine a place where laughter echoes, imaginations run wild and every day is a new adventure. That’s Spring Nursery! We are a family dedicated to creating a joyful and nurturing environment where children are part of a mission to provide outstanding early education that is accessible to all.

We support your career growth. Check out our Spring Career Progression Map, which highlights options for progression into specialist roles.

About the Role

We are looking for a Nursery Cook to join the team at Spring Harlequin. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone with experience in a larger or commercial kitchen who is ready to take on a rewarding role preparing nutritious, tasty meals for young children every day.

As our cook you’ll take full ownership of the kitchen, working from our set menus to plan, prepare and serve balanced, child‑friendly meals. You’ll manage stock levels, place food orders and always maintain excellent hygiene and safety standards. You’ll keep the kitchen spotless, well‑organised and running smoothly.

This is a Monday to Friday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM role where you’ll be responsible for providing breakfast, healthy snacks, lunch and tea for the children.

What you’ll be doing

• Planning healthy meals with staff that are nutritious, varied and tasty, considering the children’s dietary and cultural requirements.
• Taking full responsibility for compliance with all relevant food hygiene and Health & Safety requirements.
• Ensuring that all stock is ordered and replenished as needed, food is correctly stored in line with guidance, and stock is rotated. Keeping all equipment clean and in good repair.
• Keeping waste to a minimum, ensuring our impact on the environment is as minimal as it can be and costs are kept low.
• Managing the food budget and taking responsibility for the expenditure and invoicing.
• Always following the latest legislation in relation to food and food hygiene and taking part in all necessary training as required.

Requirements

• A basic Food Hygiene certificate – Level 3 preferred but can be obtained in the role.
• A passion for cooking and following the Spring menu and inputting new ideas and recipes into menu updates.
• Excellent organisational skills.
• Experience in a similar role working in a catering environment.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

At Spring we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace. We actively encourage applications from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and disabled candidates as they are under‑represented within the organisation. We want to take deliberate and purposeful action to ensure equal opportunity to all groups.

Male staff are often under‑represented in this sector and we would like to encourage more male applicants for our roles.

We are committed to safer recruitment practices to protect our service users; therefore all applicants are expected to have an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding best‑practice.

Contact

If you need support with your application please contact our Recruitment Team at quoting reference 12305.

Please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

Application Process

There are five sections for you to complete – Personal Details, CV, Supporting Statement, Equality & Diversity Submission & Declaration. Please refer to the JD and Person Specification when applying.

If you are excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with the job description, we would love you to apply anyway. You might just be the perfect person for this role or another role within the Action for Children family.

Key Skills

Culinary Experience, Food Handling, Restaurant Experience, Food Preparation Experience, Kitchen Experience, Hotel Experience, TALEO, Cake Decorating, Cooking, Baking, Sanitation, Knife Skills

Employment Type

Part‑Time

Vacancy

1