Senior Chef Supervisor

NHS; Northampton; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 31,000; Full time

Job summary

Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust is seeking a Head Chef for the Eat Street Restaurant at Northampton General Hospital. You will lead a brigade of chefs and kitchen staff, drive innovative menus, and ensure high standards across all food outlets within the NHS framework.

The role requires strong leadership, hands-on kitchen management, and a commitment to safety and quality. It is a permanent, full-time position with varied shifts and a competitive salary on the NHS band 4 scale.

Qualifications

• Food Safety Level 3 qualification is required.
• NVQ3 Vocational Chef qualification or equivalent knowledge/experience.
• Knowledge of special diets and safety management is desirable.
• Willingness to undergo additional training.

Responsibilities

• Lead the catering team to deliver services to time and standard.
• Take responsibility for catering in restaurant and café outlets.
• Provide guidance, direction, and maintain professional conduct.
• Conduct regular team meetings and report to senior management.

Skills

Leadership

People management

Catering operations

Food safety

Team motivation

Education

Food Safety Level 3

NVQ3 Vocational Chef Qualification

Special diets & safety management diploma

Willingness to training

Job description

Main area Catering Services Grade Band 4 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Varied shift patterns, 5 out of 7 days, between 6am-7pm flexible) Job ref 265-8194784-COR

Site Eat Street Restaurant, Northampton General Hospital Town Northampton Salary £28,392 - £31,157 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 16/09/2026 23:59

Job overview

We’re looking for someone who can motivate, engage, and lead a team in the catering department. This fantastic opportunity has arisen for a motivated and experienced Head Chef to join our team at our renovated restaurant to a lead and develop the food offer.

We are looking for a chef who is passionate about food, enthusiastic, personable, creative, organised, and flexible. As you will be responsible for managing a brigade of chefs and kitchen assistants, you will need strong leadership skills with the ability to engage, instruct, motivate whilst remaining calm under pressure. Working a varied rota, five days from seven.

You will be a real foodie with a passion and flair for innovation and different styles of food including street food trends as well as hospitality.

This is an excellent opportunity to develop your career in a growing business within the NHS.

Main duties of the job

To produce all catering services at the required service times to the company standards, within the agreed specification, to the agreed performance and financial targets.

To take full responsibility and accountability for the catering in our restaurant and café outlets.

To lead by example by providing guidance and direction to staff in the team. Conducting yourself in a respectful and professional manner and to encourage others to act in the same manner.

To manage and undertake regular team meetings with the teams and provide feedback to the senior management team.

Manage the department in line with the Food Safety Management System.

To ensure that all food production areas, ancillary rooms’ fridges, and general catering equipment are kept in a clean and hygienic state through-out the duration of production, cooking, and service.

Carry out weekly & monthly audits against daily/monthly due diligence and cleaning schedules.

Actively enforce the relevant Food Safety compliance, that your knowledge of Health and Safety, Risk Management and COSHH requirements are kept up to date and that this knowledge is cascaded to your team.

To have a thorough knowledge of the Food Safety Procedures, cleaning techniques and standards and to ensure that staff use and maintain these.

Working for our organisation

We recognise that AI tools can support application writing; however, candidates are asked to keep their use to a minimum. Responses should reflect your own experience, skills and knowledge, as over-reliance on AI-generated content may result in generic answers that do not accurately represent your abilities.

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) brings together Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust. As a group, we are committed to improving services for our communities through collaboration, modernising care delivery and striving for excellence. Working together enables us to share expertise, strengthen services and create greater opportunities, and there may be a requirement to work across sites depending on service needs.

Our Excellence Values are Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Integrity and Courage. UHN welcomes applications from all backgrounds and is committed to an inclusive working environment. We are proud signatories of the Armed Forces Covenant and hold the Gold Award under the Employer Recognition Scheme. Candidates who identify as members of the Armed Forces community and meet the essential criteria will be guaranteed an interview.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To produce all catering services at the required service times to the company standards, within the agreed specification, to the agreed performance and financial targets.

To take full responsibility and accountability for the catering in our restaurant and café outlets.

To lead by example by providing guidance and direction to staff in the team. Conducting yourself in a respectful and professional manner and to encourage others to act in the same manner.

To manage and undertake regular team meetings with the teams and provide feedback to the senior management team.

Manage the department in line with the Food Safety Management System.

To ensure that all food production areas, ancillary rooms’ fridges, and general catering equipment are kept in a clean and hygienic state through-out the duration of production, cooking, and service.

Carry out weekly & monthly audits against daily/monthly due diligence and cleaning schedules.

Actively enforce the relevant Food Safety compliance, that your knowledge of Health and Safety, Risk Management and COSHH requirements are kept up to date and that this knowledge is cascaded to your team.

To have a thorough knowledge of the Food Safety Procedures, cleaning techniques and standards and to ensure that staff use and maintain these.

Encourage, engage, and lead the catering team to perform their roles to a high standard, in alignment to the NHS policies and procedures.

Actively seek and identify opportunities for sales growth.

Create proposals for improvements in the department areas when the need occurs to the Catering Services Management Team and to contribute to the improvement of the services.

Manage tariff prices, that all catering services are costed and charged accordingly.

Maintain stock levels, consumption & wastage.

Management of the ordering of food and supplies.

Successfully completing weekly stock takes to manage the department consumption spend.

Trust wide, Directorate and Departmental procedures are implemented and complied with by all catering staff.

Manage departmental attendance and sickness, in line with the absence and sickness policies.

Manage all Short Term and Long-Term sickness.

Manage Recruitment, Onboarding & Training, ensure that staffing levels meet budgets.

To co-ordinate the mandatory training needs for all catering team members and report on completion statistics

Report any work difficulties and potential hazards such as equipment defects promptly to the responsible line manager or external service provider.

To maintain a pleasant customer focussed manner always. Be the face of the food service front and back of house.

To undertake, manage and supervise annual appraisals with all catering team members and to report back any figures a necessary.

Monitor and Adhere to the Trust and Departmental uniform policies and codes.

To complete weekly timesheets on the e-rostering system for bank and substantive staff.

Work with other department managers to organise hospitality events.

Any other reasonable request related to tasks identified by the Catering Services Manager.

Education, Training & Qualifications

• Food Safety Level 3
• NVQ3 Vocational Chef Qualification, or equivalent knowledge acquired through training & experience
• Knowledge acquired through training & experience to diploma level on special diets & health & safety management
• Willingness to undergo additional training

Knowledge & Experience

• Recognized Catering Craft Skill
• Strong People Management Skills including general HR skills in recruitment, training and managing employee performance including disciplinary & grievance procedures
• Delivered a service in a smililar role
• Financial Acumen, managing budget
• Catering experience & a great passion for food & team engagement

Skills

• Preparation of food to deadlines and general food production such as butchery
• Kitchen task planning and organising, adjusting work schedule as required
• Passionate & committed to bringing our Dedicated to Excellence Values to life, improving the way we work with each other, particularly focusing on empowerment, equality, diversity & inclusion of staff, patients & service users.
• Management of day to day kitchen operations & delegation of work to colleagues
• Ensures safe use of equipment & associated training
• Strong level of literacy & numeracy
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to communicate with staff & customers
• Good time management & organisational skills with the ability to think ahead
• Computer Literacy
• Completing Staff surveys & local audits
• Ability to achieve & set standards
• Self motivated, have own initiative & the ability to meet deadlines
• Mental effort & concentration required when cooking and using equipment
• Processing of time sheets & work records for staff & colleagues
• Ability to develop employees through training

At Northampton General Hospital we provide general acute services and hyper-acute stroke, vascular and renal services to people living in Northamptonshire. As well as this we are an accredited cancer centre and provide cancer services to a wider population of Northamptonshire and parts of Buckinghamshire.

We are proud to be the first hospital in the UK to have obtained Pathway to Excellence® designated accreditation from the American nurses credentialing centre (ANCC).

We celebrate staff achievements and value the importance of working as one big team. That’s why we talk about Team NGH. It’s all about working together to provide the best possible care for our patients and supporting each other to grow and develop our skills. We are driven to helping you to be the best you can be.

We want to recruit the best people to deliver our services across the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire and help to unleash everyone’s full potential. As an organisation, we value how we communicate and promote our vacancies to all communities. The Hospital Group encourages applications from people who identify from all protected groups, especially those from BAME, Disabled and LGBTQ+ backgrounds as these are underrepresented in our hospitals. We understand that we need to work with colleagues from diverse backgrounds and make sure the environment they work in is inclusive and collaborative. We have active Networks that promote and support colleagues from all backgrounds.This ensures everyone feels supported and has a sense of belonging working for Kettering and Northampton General Hospitals.

Our Excellence Values:

• Compassion
• Respect
• Integrity
• Courageous
• Accountable

Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust recognises that staff of differing backgrounds and life experiences enrich our workforce and bring different skills and knowledge. We therefore encourage and welcome applications for our vacancies from all candidates regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

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.