Catering Assistant - NHS

Here at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust,

Our mission is: Providing high-quality, compassionate care for our communities

Our vision to 2030 is: To be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service

Job overview

We are recruiting for a Catering Assistant who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients

Our busy catering department is looking for an enthusiastic and adaptable catering assistant to join the catering teams at East and North Herts NHS Trust.

The catering team delivers a high-quality catering and retail service to patients, staff and visitors.

The role of catering assistants involves providing a range of support to our catering team which includes picking patient food orders, food deliveries, retail services, cleaning services, front servery & operating till systems.

You should be able to work at part of a team and communicate well with colleagues, staff and visitors. You will need to work within hospital policies and procedures and always uphold the values of East and North Herts.

Developing our staff is very important to us. East and North Herts offer fantastic development pathways and support apprenticeships.

At the heart of everything we do are our core values: Include, Respect, and Improve. We encourage you to embrace these values throughout the recruitment process and in your role with us.

Main duties of the job

You will work as part of a busy team and will be designated to one particular section but would be expected to work in all areas of the Catering Department if required to do so.

You will be required to undertake a wide range of general Catering duties including preparation of food, service of food to patients, staff and the public, cleaning of and use of equipment and machinery, and the operation of mechanical industrial type dishwashing machines.

You will also be required to maintain stocks in the site’s vending machines and to handle cash.

Working for our organisation

At East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.

We run the following hospitals:

• The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
• New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
• Hertford County, Hertford
• Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood

We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.

We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made and considered formally, and will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.

Person specification

Qualifications / Training

• A good standard of general education - no formal qualifications required

• First Aid Certificate
• Basic Catering training
• Allergen Awareness training

Previous Experience

• Previous Catering experience preferred but not essential as training will be provided
• Experience of cleaning techniques

• Previous cashier and cash/card handling experience
• Previous experience of working in a customer facing environment
• Previous experience of using industrial Catering equipment

Skills

• Excellent Written and verbal communication skills
• Good personal organisational skills - ability to prioritise tasks
• Ability to work on own initiative or as part of a team

• Basic food preparation skills

Our values

We want our staff to believe in, demonstrate and live our values in everything we do.

Include

We value the diversity and experience of our community colleagues and partners, creating relationships and climates that provide an opportunity to share, collaborate and grow together.

Respect

We create a safe environment where we are curious of the lived experience of others, seek out best practice and are open to listening and hearing new ideas.

Improve

We are committed to consistently delivering excellent services and continuously looking to improve through a creative workforce that feels empowered to act in service of our shared purpose.

Committed to our Community

In particular we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities, and candidates from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who are currently under-represented in various parts of our workforce .

We understand the importance of balancing work and home life. We are committed to support flexible working for our staff wherever possible and all our employees are given the opportunity to discuss potential for flexible working.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and achieved our status in 2019.

We will remove barriers that prospective candidates might face at any stage of our recruitment process. If you have a disability and would like the advert in an alternative format, or would like to talk about how we can adjust the interview process to best support you, please contact us by emailing [email protected]

We are also proud to support our UK armed forces by supporting Reservists, Cadet Instructors, Veterans and military spouses/partners into employment and offering supportive policies that value their contribution to the community and to our Trust.

Our approach is inclusive, recognizing diverse challenges and creating a supportive environment where carers feel valued.

When you apply...

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date in certain circumstances. Please ensure that you make your application as soon as possible.

All correspondence relating to vacancies will be via the e-mail address you have provided on your application form. Some servers automatically send e-mails to your junk mail so please check as well as your inbox.

As a publicly funded employer, we need to ensure we utilise our funds responsibly, this may mean we are unable to support sponsorship required to gain the right to work for particular positions. We strongly advise you to contact the line manager or a member of the Resourcing Team before applying to confirm if we will be able to support with sponsorship for that post.

King's Trust Support

Please contact Enquiries.H&[email protected] for support.

Secondments/Fixed term

Where a vacancy is advertised as a temporary position, the duration will be specified in the advert. If the vacancy becomes permanent towards the end of the specified duration, the successful applicant may not be required to re-apply and can be slotted into the role on a permanent basis if appropriate.

If you are an internal applicant applying for a temporary working arrangement, please see the attached notes on secondments.