Job summary
- Main area
- Chef
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 3
- Contract
- Permanent: Tuesday - Saturday 12.00-8.00pm over 5/7 including Bank Holidays if required
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 409-7090514-A
- Employer
- Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Southport and Ormskirk
- Town
- Southport
- Salary
- £24,937 - £26,598 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 31/07/2025 23:59
Employer heading

Chef
NHS AfC: Band 3
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
Southport and Ormskirk Facilities are looking to recruit a conscientious and enthusiastic Chef to join our team going forward in these exciting times.
Southport and Ormskirk is a traditional cook trust that provides quality freshly prepared food to patients, staff and visitors alike.
The role involves working in all areas of the kitchen including pastry, breakfasts, vegetables, main courses and special dietary requirements.
The ideal candidate should have good culinary skills and experience of large scale catering with an eye for detail.
Do you have City & Guilds 7061&2 or NVQ Level 2, experience in menu planning and good organisational skills?
Main duties of the job
- Provide a customer focused service
- Preparation, cook and serve all types of food items, including special diets without direct Supervision.
- Organise, deliver, develop and improve the catering service throughout the Trust.
- Ensure efficient management of all catering services
- Ensure compliance with all legislation relating to risk management and security
- Ensure compliance with all legislation relating to food safety management
- Cleaning of structures, equipment and meal service components as specialised in work instructions
- Store keeping including, checking deliveries, storage and stock rotation identify any anomalies
- At times to operate without the direct guidance of a team leader
- Ensure a secure working environment for patients, visitors and staff
- Promote and maintain point of sale
- Undertake all aspects of the Cash handling process when necessary
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, inform ward / staff of menu changes and communicate any dietary information to patients and retail.
- Enforce compliance with Waste Management Policy to meet the changing requirements as segregation requirements increase. Assist in departmental waste procedure following guardians of waste process.
- Comply with all aspects of Hygiene and Food Safety Legislation
- Stock rotation and store keeping as appropriate identify any anomalies which will affect menus and communicate to Management team.
- Organise daily work communicating with colleagues this is to include cooking methods, cooking times, cooking procedures, re-organises menus at a short notice for fresh cook system.
- Regeneration of cook chill/freeze products IDSSI meals, and special diets.
- Adhere to “Clean as you go” principles
- Assist in ordering process of provisions as appropriate
- Deals with Patient and service users’ queries
- Assist Catering Manager and Team leader with implementation of any departmental changes.
CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- Ensure compliance with Facilities Management standards
- Ensure effective delivery of services to service users and customers
- Maintain and improve all aspects of the service
- Participate, as appropriate, with staff involvement groups for all aspects of quality
- Participate in staff involvement groups
- Observe legal requirements
- Ensure compliance with HACCP
- 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 and national food standards
- Effective use of Monika systems
TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSIBILITIES
- To attend training courses as required and participate in annual refresher sessions in accordance with own Personal Development Review
- Ensure compliance with Food safety level 2 and allergen training
- Ensure compliance of 100% with Mandatory training
LINE MANAGEMENT/SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Provide guidance and a knowledge base for new and existing staff
FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- Ensure effective and economical use of all Trust resources/materials
- Maintain and monitor stock levels to meet the demands of the service
- Distribute and maintain economic and effective use of chemicals and products
- Ensure good practice to minimise food wastage
- Adhere to standard recipes
Person specification
Our Values
Essential criteria
- We are Kind
- We are Open
- We are Inclusive
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- NVQ Level 2 Cookery
- Food Hygiene Certificate Level 2
- Basic Numeracy
- HACCP Training
- Basic Computer Skills
Desirable criteria
- ECDL or equivalent
- NVQ Level 3 Cookery
- Food Safety Level 3/4 Certificate
Knowledge and Experience
Essential criteria
- Dietetic Knowledge
- Large scale catering production
- Varied cooking ability
- 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
- Varied deadlines and adhoc pressures
- Dealing with staff/customer issues
- Professional and hygiene awareness/appearance
- Varied shifts
- Flexible approach to work duties
- Weekend and Bank Holiday Working
- Cross site cover
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 Service Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01704 704091
- Additional information
Ormskirk 01695 65 6079
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