Job vacancy: Head Chef, Whittington Health NHS Trust, London

Job summary

Main area: Head Chef
Grade: Band 4
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 220-WHT-3308

Employer: Whittington Health NHS Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Whittington Hospital
Town: London
Salary: £33,094 - £36,195 Per Annum Including HCAS
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 25/08/2025 23:59

Head Chef

Band 4

Covid-19 Vaccination

Getting vaccinated, and getting a booster, remains the best defence against COVID-19.
We encourage and support staff to get COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose as and when they are eligible.

Please note in order to progress your application, your data will be processed by our 3^rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of Whittington Health NHS Trust.

For our current apprenticeship vacancies, please go to https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship and use Keyword ‘Whittington’

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You will oversee menu planning, ordering, costing, and stock management. It is crucial to maintain compliance with Health and Hygiene regulations and Food Safety procedures. Accurate record-keeping is essential for internal and external audits.

· Collaboration within the team is key, and you should be comfortable working calmly in a fast-paced environment.

· Understanding cooking techniques, temperatures, allergens, consistency and food texture is essential. Additionally, you will contribute creative and appealing ideas for our extensive menus.

· Observing correct and safe procedures in accordance with the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

· To maintain all ‘due-diligence’ processes relating to cook-chill cooking procedures as stated in the Trust food safety policy.

· Ensure all food stored in fridges/freezers have correct labelling and are properly stored and rotated.

· Ensuring economical and correct use of all materials and equipment.

· Ensuring the highest level of hygiene and cleanliness is always maintained.

· Covering for another Chef’s as and when required.

· Assure a high level of staff morale and motivation by personal leadership, communication and appropriate procedures

· Help deal with customers feed-back and complaints.

· Maintaining a tidy place of work including undertaking light cleaning duties.

· Always maintaining neat appearance consistent with the catering dress code.

· To any mechanical or safety defects and need for repairs to the supervisor for immediate action.

· To attend training courses where necessary.

· To be able to work flexibly as and when required.

· Participation in the department’s appraisal scheme.

· Always promote the service and reputation of the department.

· Full awareness of all dietary requirements.

· Any other duties commensurate with the grade for the efficient running of the department.

· Safe working practices in the retail kitchen in accordance with good catering practice and provision of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

· To report any accident immediately as per the Accident Procedure in accordance with Trust policy and Incident Reporting Form.

· Adhere to departmental operational standards and procedures.

· Follow and adhere to the Trust Values and Behaviour.

· To observe and where necessary, follow all Fire Precautions as laid out within the general hospital guidelines.

Person specification

Skills

Essential criteria

Ability to work unsupervised
Good communicator both verbal and written
Ability to follow instructions
Ability to work within set deadlines
Ability to co-ordinate multiple tasks

Desirable criteria

Previous customer care training
Understanding of what constitutes good customer service

Knowledge

Essential criteria

To be proactive and organized in day-day department / service operations
Knowledge of food hygiene regulations
Good customer care

Desirable criteria

Knowledge of how NHS operates
Knowledge of hospital Catering Services
Health and Safety at Work

Previous Experience

Essential criteria

Previous experience working within a Catering environment
Understanding of Basic Food Hygiene principles, with the ability to attain Basic Food Hygiene Certification

Desirable criteria

NHS experience
Working large scale food service unit

Qualifications

Desirable criteria

Basic Food Hygiene qualification
Health and Safety training

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

Flexibility
Integrity and discretion
Organised and methodical in approach to work
Good communication Skills
Calm under pressure
Team worker & leader

Desirable criteria

Creative
Outgoing, friendly personality

Any other factors relating to the post

Essential criteria

Ability to build up good relationships with staff at all levels, especially internal customers

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND ADULTS

To comply with the Trust’s Safeguarding Children and Adults policies, procedures and protocols. All individual members of staff (paid or unpaid) have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults This will require you to:

Ensure you are familiar with and comply with the London Child Protection Procedures and protocols for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people.

Ensure you are familiar and comply with the London Multi Agency Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Pan London Procedures.

Ensure you are familiar and comply with local protocols and systems for information sharing.
Know the appropriate contact numbers and required reporting lines.
Participate in required training and supervision.
Comply with required professional boundaries and codes of conduct

Whittington Health is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Your application form –

Provide only business email address for your referees – we are unable to request references from yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail accounts.
Make sure you to include all evidence of where you meet the essential requirement on the jobs description as this forms the base of our shortlisting criteria.

Our processes –

Closing dates are given as a guide; we are within our right to close adverts early so please ensure you submit your application as soon as possible to avoid delay.
If you do not hear from us up to 3 weeks after the closing date of the job unfortunately this means you have not been successfully shortlisted for interview. If your require feedback on your application please contact the appointing manager detailed in the body of the advert.
Please check your emails regularly as all correspondence from us will be via trac.systems – occasionally these emails will go into your Junk folder.
Employment at Whittington Health is offered subject to successful completion of a 6 month probationary period for all staff with the exception of GMC Registered Doctors.

Other important information –

Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI points based system.
Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.
In submitting an application form, you authorise Whittington Health NHS Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process should you be appointed to the post.

If you are offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre-employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk

Please note that during the recruitment process your Identity Documentation (i.e. passport, driving licence, visa, etc.) will be scanned using a device which recognises UV, Infrared and Machine Readable Zone security features of the documents provided

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

We would welcome applications from individuals who are from underrepresented groups in the organisation

For further support on submitting an application please refer to the NLPSS Applicant Toolkit: https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name: Pamela Latawan
Job title: Catering Manager
Email address: [email protected]
Telephone number: 07852331345

If you have problems applying, contact

Address: WHT
Telephone: If you have any queries, please contact NLPSS Recruitment Helpdesk tel. 020 3758 2060

List jobs with Whittington Health NHS Trust in Support Services or all sectors

Apply online now Alert me to similar vacancies

Find jobs in...

Featured jobs:

Senior Autism Assessor for Children and Young People (ADOS and/or ADIR trained) - Remote (Employed)

Time commitment: Full-time employment is preferred, though we can also offer part-time (minimum of 3 days per week).

Location: This is a fully remote role; however, you must permanently reside in the UK throughout your employment with Paloma.

The Opportunity

Paloma Health has developed a new gold-standard autism assessment pathway and our own Patient Record software system, which allows us to offer:

An exceptional service and timely assessments, as well as clear strengths and needs-based outcomes, regardless of whether an autism diagnosis is made.
High assessor role satisfaction by improving the experience of delivering assessments. For example, we are building an AI tool to streamline diagnostic report writing, which we know is a pressure of the role.

You will be a Senior Assessor within our multidisciplinary assessment team, delivering:

Remote developmental histories and child observations (via video calls)
Peer MDT diagnostic decision-making, with the support of the senior clinical MDT where required
Tech-enabled outcome report writing
Outcome calls with parents and families (via video call)

As a Senior Assessor, you have the opportunity to focus on delivering direct care. Furthermore, if you have the relevant experience and skills, you can take on an additional responsibility. We limit this to one responsibility to allow for focused time on that topic, rather than having your time stretched too thinly. When taking on an additional responsibility, your case volume is reduced, making time available for this focused time.

For Senior Assessors, additional responsibility options include supporting more complex cases, ensuring quality assurance, providing training, facilitating family engagement, and contributing to pathway development.

About you, and how we will support you

From a cultural perspective, you are:

Comfortable working in a dynamic environment and embracing change
Excited about using new technologies in your role
Always looking for ways to improve our staff and patient experience

We commit to supporting your development and well-being, including:

The Paloma Clinical Academy programme supports all clinicians at all stages of their careers to develop (e.g. to our additional responsibility Senior Assessor roles) and cross-skill (e.g. into ADHD when we launch that service).
1 protected day per month for assessor team training, Continuing Professional Development (CPD), clinical supervision and reflection.
Quarterly development conversations with clear career progression pathways.
Clear weekly timetables that support a role mix across appointments, documentation, development, and team building.

For full details please click below.

Autism Assessor for Children and Young People (ADOS and/or ADIR trained) - Remote (Employed)

Time commitment: Full-time employment is preferred, though we can also offer part-time (minimum of 4 days per week).

Location: This is a fully remote role; however, you must permanently reside in the UK throughout your employment with Paloma.

The Opportunity

Paloma Health has developed a new gold-standard autism assessment pathway and our own Patient Record software system, which allows us to offer:

An exceptional service and timely assessments, as well as clear strengths and needs-based outcomes, regardless of whether an autism diagnosis is made.
High assessor role satisfaction by improving the experience of delivering assessments. For example, we are building an AI tool to streamline diagnostic report writing, which we know is a pressure of the role.

You will work as a member of a multidisciplinary assessment team, delivering:

Remote developmental histories and child observations (via video calls)
Peer MDT diagnostic decision-making, with the support of the senior clinical MDT where required
Tech-enabled outcome report writing
Outcome calls with parents and families (via video call)

From a cultural perspective, you are:

Comfortable working in a dynamic environment and embracing change
Excited about using new technologies in your role
Always looking for ways to improve our staff and patient experience

We commit to supporting your development and well-being, including:

The Paloma Clinical Academy programme supports all clinicians at all stages of their careers to develop (e.g. to our Senior Assessor role) and cross-skill (e.g. into ADHD when we launch that).
1 protected day per month for assessor team training, Continuing Professional Development (CPD), clinical supervision and reflection.
Quarterly development conversations with clear career progression pathways.
Clear weekly timetables that support a role mix across appointments, administration, development, and team building.

For full details please click below.

ADOS Autism Assessor for Children and Young People - Exeter/South West England

ADOS Autism Assessor for Children and Young People, based in our Exeter clinic

Time commitment: Full-time employment is preferred, though we can also offer part-time (minimum of 3 days per week) or a self-employed role (again a minimum of 3 days per week).

Location: This role is in-person based at our Exeter, Devon clinic.

The Opportunity

Paloma Health has developed a new gold-standard autism assessment pathway and our own Patient Record software system, which allows us to offer:

An exceptional service and timely assessments, as well as clear strengths and needs-based outcomes, regardless of whether an autism diagnosis is made.
High assessor role satisfaction by improving the experience of delivering assessments. For example, we are building an AI tool to streamline diagnostic report writing, which we know is a pressure of the role.

You will work as a member of a multidisciplinary assessment team, delivering:

In-person child observations at our Exeter clinic
Peer MDT diagnostic decision-making, with the support of the senior clinical MDT where required
Tech-enabled outcome report writing
Outcome calls with parents and families (via video call)

From a cultural perspective, you are:

Comfortable working in a dynamic environment and embracing change
Excited about using new technologies in your role
Always looking for ways to improve our staff and patient experience

We commit to supporting your development and well-being, including:

The Paloma Clinical Academy programme supports all clinicians at all stages of their careers to develop (e.g. to our Senior Assessor role) and cross-skill (e.g. into ADHD when we launch that).
1 protected day per month for assessor team training, Continuing Professional Development (CPD), clinical supervision and reflection.
Quarterly development conversations with clear career progression pathways.
Clear weekly timetables that support a role mix across appointments, administration, development, and team building.

For full details please click below.

Job summary

Employer heading

Head Chef

Band 4

Job overview

Main duties of the job

Working for our organisation

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Person specification

Skills

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Previous Experience

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Qualifications

Desirable criteria

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Any other factors relating to the post

Essential criteria

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

Documents to download

Further details / informal visits contact

If you have problems applying, contact

Find jobs in...