Catering Assistant

As part of an effective team, you will be responsible for efficiently assisting in all food service areas/retail outlets as directed by your Supervisor/Line Manager and operating within established food hygiene and safety practices, methods and procedures and within the principles of a flexible team approach., Service areas include all kitchen and dish wash sections, hospitality and retail sections including functions, restaurants , Hospital shop, vending, and any other related areas including Ellesmere Port Hospital.

You will provide an excellent customer service to patients, staff and all visitors to the Trust remaining professional, polite and helpful at all times.

Duties include the cleaning of premises and equipment, food preparation and packaging, food service, vending and ward trolley service.

The role will include undertaking duties in a chilled and/or frozen working and storage environment, as appropriate.

You will take part in the preparation of raw food materials as part of the process to make our patients nutritional meals throughout their healthcare pathway during their time at CoCH. In addition, you will take part in meal(s) preparation for our staff and Trust visitors throughout the seven day week.

You will help maintain a clean and hygienic food prep & meal cooking environment in line with the National Standards of Cleanliness. You will establish and maintain good working relationships across your wider catering team; specifically, clear line of communication with Supervisors, Ward Teams, Departmental staff and Visitors.

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust provides services to West Cheshire and to Welsh patients covered by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. The Trust works collaboratively within the wider Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership. Its services are provided from three locations:

• The Countess of Chester Hospital: providing 438 general and acute beds


• Ellesmere Port Hospital: providing 56 beds as a rehabilitation, intermediate and outpatient facility


• Tarporley War Memorial Hospital: a base for community services which serve the local rural population.


The Trust employs over 6258 staff (headcount) which includes temporary bank staff and provides acute emergency and elective services, primary care direct access services and obstetric services to a population of approximately 407,000. This includes 357,000 residents in Chester and West Cheshire which includes Ellesmere Port and Neston as well as the Deeside area of Flintshire which has a population of approximately 50,000.

The Trust is a busy district general hospital and in 2022/2023, there were more than 503,342 patient attendances (inpatient, outpatient and diagnostic) ranging from a simple outpatient appointment to major cancer surgery. This is an increase of nearly 10,000 compared to the previous year when there were 494,387 patient attendances.