Ward Catering Assistant

Merseywestlancs; Chorley; Hybrid; GBP 23,000 - 28,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

27 days annual leave (pro rata)

NHS discounts

Job summary

Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust is hiring a Ward Catering Assistant for a 30-hour per week, permanent contract at Southport Hospital. The role requires a can-do attitude, flexibility, and teamwork in a busy kitchen to deliver patient-focused meals.

Food safety knowledge is preferred and occasional site rosters may apply. The post supports NHS standards with training and development opportunities within a large hospital network.

Qualifications

• Experience in a busy kitchen environment is preferred.
• Food safety qualification is advantageous.
• Customer care and teamwork are essential.

Responsibilities

• Maintain all operational procedures.
• Ensure hygiene and food safety compliance.
• Provide professional patient-focused meal service.
• Support ward teams to improve patient experience.
• Monitor stock, waste and wastage to reduce loss.

Skills

Customer care

Teamwork

Communication

Cash handling

Education

Food Safety Level 2

HACCP Training

ECDL or equivalent

Basic Numeracy

Job description

We want talented and enthusiastic people from all backgrounds to join #TeamMWL, with us you can learn, grow and develop yourself and your career, realising your true ambitions and aspirations.

Whatever you’re looking for in your career, you’ll find it here at MWL.

Main area None Grade NHS AfC: Band 2 Contract Permanent: 30 hours - Will include weekends and bank holidays if service requires Hours

• Part time
• Flexible working

30 hours per week (Working on a roster 3 days out of 7) Job ref 409-8090641-A

Site Southport Hospital Town Merseyside Salary £25,272 Per Annum, Pro Rata Salary period Yearly Closing 16/11/2026 23:59

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to "name of trust" transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Ward Catering Assistant to join our Team

Hours Available are - 1 x 30 hours permanent

The ideal candidate will have a "Can do attitude" flexible and will be a team player who has experience working in a busy kitchen environment.

The ideal candidate should have good customer care skills and experience of working in a kitchen/coffee shop/restaurant.

Food Safety level 2 certificate would be an advantage.

Candidates will be required to cover annual leave and absences if required to maintain a high standard of service.

Main duties of the job

As a Ward Catering Assistant, you will assist our ward teams improve patients experience whilst they are in hospital, supporting the front-line delivery of inpatient meal service to maintain standards for nutrition and hydration, reducing food waste and maximising efficiency.

You will be expected to provide a professional patient focused meal service ensuring hygiene and patient safety standards are maintained.

In addition, the Trust are committed to provide a excellent, essential patient care, supporting patients to receive optimal levels of nutritional and hydration during their episode of care by providing the right food for the right patient at the right time at each meal service.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018

Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)

National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Maintain all operational procedures
• Enforce compliance with Waste Management Policy to meet the changing requirements as segregation requirements increase
• To comply with Hygiene and Food Safety Legislation
• Ensure compliance with Facilities Management standards
• Ensure compliance with HACCP
• Ensure effective delivery of services to service users and customers
• Maintain and improve all aspects of the service
• Participate in staff involvement groups for all aspects of the Trust Quality Strategy 2012/15
• Observe legal requirements
• Responsible for the safe use of all equipment
• Ensure compliance and operational observance of safe working practices as detailed in all aspects of risk management
• Ensure all appropriate hygiene monitoring is carried out and recorded for every process
• Ensure compliance with national standards of cleanliness

TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSIBILITIES

• To attend training courses as required and participate in annual refresher sessions in accordance with own Personal Development Review

LINE MANAGEMENT/SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide guidance and a knowledge base for new and existing staff

FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• To ensure economical use of all Trust resources
• Maintain and monitor stock levels to meet the demands of the service
• Distribute and maintain economic and effective use of chemicals and products
• Monitor and record food wastage

Person specification

Qualifications

• Food Safety Level 2
• Basic Numeracy
• Basic Computer Skills
• HACCP Training
• ECDL or equivalent

Knowledge

• NHS Experience

Skills

• Customer Care Skills
• Ability to work under pressure
• Provision of a patient/customer focussed service
• Principles of Risk Management
• Communication
• Ability to instruct other less qualified staff or students
• Cash handling abilities/use of cash registers

Other

• Physically demanding role
• Pushing and pulling trolleys/cages
• Varied deadlines and adhoc pressures
• Dealing with staff/customer issues
• Exposure to temperature variationsProfessional and hygiene awareness/appearance
• Varied shifts

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact [e-mail]

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

eVisa Update

For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK.

Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account.

Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:

• Understand how to generate an eVisa share code

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 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.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
• Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is a non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website.

You will be expected to undertake the Trusts' commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here .

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.

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.