Job summary
- Main area
- None
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 2
- Contract
- Permanent: 30 hours 3/7 weekends and bank holidays
- Hours
- Part time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 409-7156315
- Employer
- Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Southport Hospital
- Town
- Merseyside
- Salary
- £24,169 per annum, pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 09/06/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 18/06/2025
Employer heading

Ward Catering Assistant
NHS AfC: Band 2
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
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 a advantage
Hours Available are -
30 hours over 3 day supporting Patients Nutrition & Hydration delivering a 5* patient experience
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
KEY DUTIES
· 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
Essential criteria
- Food Safety Level 2
- Basic Numeracy
- Basic Computer Skills
Desirable criteria
- HACCP Training
- ECDL or equivalent
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Large scale food production
- Team working
Desirable criteria
- NHS Experience
Skills
Essential criteria
- 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
Desirable criteria
- Cash handling abilities/use of cash registers
Other
Essential criteria
- Physically demanding role
- Pushing and pulling trolleys/cages
- Varied deadlines and adhoc pressures
- Dealing with staff/customer issues
- Exposure to temperature variations
- Professional and hygiene awareness/appearance
- Varied shifts
Applicant requirements
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.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Angela Wakefield
- Job title
- Catering Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01704 744091
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