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Healthcare and Social Care - Hospital Catering Staff

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Hospital careering staff can include ward hosts/ hostesses, chefs, and catering assistants. Chefs and cooks are responsible for cooking food in NHS hospitals and other services making sure our patients and staff have highly nutritious, high-quality food. Ward hosts and catering assistant help cook and serve food and drinks to patients and tidy up and cleaning after food service.

As a cook or chef, your duties include:

• Planning meals and menus
• Preparing food
• Using kitchen equipment such as mixers
• Storing food correctly

As a catering assistant or ward host you may:

• Prepare food such as vegetables for the cook or chef
• Wash up, by hand or using a dishwasher
• Keep kitchen areas clean and tidy up after meal services
• Clear tables
• Load meals onto trolleys to go to wards and other parts of the hospital

Chefs, catering assistants and ward hosts work in a range of places including NHS hospitals, private hospitals, and residential homes. They mainly work in kitchen, catering outlets and wards.

The hours of work for a catering staff depend on where they work. Many of these roles include working shifts that include early mornings, nights, evenings and weekends.

A catering assistant can earn between £11,500 and £16,500

A chef can early anything between £15,000 and £30,000

To enter the NHS as a cook or chef, you need a catering qualification, usually at level 2 or 3, however there are no set requirements for catering assistants and ward hosts If you have an EHCP you may be able to apply under the DfE exemption which allows the apprentice to use Entry level 3 English and Maths qualifications.

The apprentice would have to be component enough to successfully achieve all other aspects of the apprenticeship requirements, become occupationally competent and achieve Entry Level 3 in English and Maths before the end of their apprenticeship. College- you could start off on a Level 1 Certificate Introduction to Culinary Skills