Head Chef

Silversprings
Colchester, Essex

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Colchester, Essex

Head Chefs at Care UK are well organised, highly motivated, flexible and enthusiastic. They have what it takes to build trust, maintain team discipline and boost morale. They enjoy collaborating with others and sharing ideas and information. They're great at delegating and stretching people’s responsibilities in order to develop them. And, they have full access to a large supply chain for all catering requirements and the autonomy to create nutritious well balanced menus for everyone. Do you have the same sort of attributes? Then we could have just the role for you.

What you’ll be doing
Being a Head Chef isn’t just about maintaining high standards in all areas of the kitchen. It's about using modern kitchen equipment and fresh local produce to develop full diet sensitive meals for residents so they can enjoy the same flavour and nutrition. It’s about recruiting, training, supervising and developing a team to help them make the most of their potential. And, it’s about ordering supplies, maintaining agreed stock levels, working to a budget and completing monthly audits. Put simply, it’s about making a difference. A real difference.

What you’ll need
A Catering Diploma (City & Guilds/BTEC), NVQ 2/3 in practical cookery and Health and Safety and Food Hygiene Certificates (minimum level 2) are essential. You’ll also need to have relevant high cover kitchen experience and a good understanding of HACCP. Great at planning nutritionally balanced menus and catering for specific dietary needs, you're efficient at ordering, stock control and working within a budget and comfortable carrying out staff meetings and training. Above all, you have a natural ability to help make the lives of others more fulfilling and want to work in an environment where the work can be hard, but also fun and rewarding.

Alternate weekend working and sociable working hours
Competitive rates of pay – we continuously review pay in your local market
Opportunities to progress through our personalised career paths into regional support roles
Competitive refer a friend scheme of up to £1000 depending on role
Quality and free training to help develop and enhance your skills
Bank holiday enhancements
Cycle to work scheme
Free DBS
Thousands of online and in-store discounts across big known retailers enabling our colleagues to make big savings on every day shopping such as holidays, supermarkets and travel.
Employee Assistance Programme – Immediate access to a confidential telephone counselling and legal information service which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to include support such as financial and family concerns

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At a glance

Location

Tenpenny Hill
Thorrington
Essex
CO7 8JG

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Pay

Up to

Shifts

Days and Nights

Contract

Permanent

Reference

SYS-12507

Why work at Silversprings

At Care UK's Silversprings in Thorrington, Essex, providing the highest standard of care for residents is at the heart of what we do. As part of our friendly team, you'll have the opportunity to develop your career and the support to go far.

Our team works in a purpose-built care home with a family atmosphere. We provide residential, nursing, dementia, and short-term respite care with fantastic facilities for residents, including a hair and beauty salon and surroundings of beautiful landscape gardens.

We truly believe that every one of us makes a difference. If you're a passionate, caring individual who works well in a team, consider a rewarding career at Silversprings.

A catering role at Care UK

A catering career at Care UK

Join our team and you'll have the chance to get creative in the kitchen while cooking up nutritious, well-balanced meals that have a direct impact on residents’ health and wellbeing.

Many catering colleagues join us from restaurants or hotels where they’re used to working long hours late into the night. In a care home, you’ll work more sociable hours, and you’ll also have the opportunity to build relationships by getting to know residents and their tastes and preferences. This is a role where you can really make a difference.

Looking to progress in your career? Our Chef Academy is designed to support individuals in our hospitality teams to become the future kitchen chefs and leaders within Care UK.

Everyone needs to feel motivated and rewarded, so we offer a competitive package of pay and benefits. Read more here.

Here at Care UK, we want all our colleagues to have a long and successful career with us. Our vision is to provide an inclusive training culture that empowers all colleagues with sector-leading development opportunities. View our opportunities for apprenticeships, development programmes and career progression.

At Care UK, we're proud to promote our diverse workforce and are committed to nurturing an inclusive culture. Our teams’ wellbeing is our top priority, and we believe it’s important to foster a culture of promoting open and honest conversations. Read more here.

As a colleague at Care UK, we believe it’s important that you know what you can expect from your manager to ensure people are fairly treated and properly recognised from day one. Our People Promise sets out clearly what you can expect from your manager and Care UK.

Trusted to care

A closely-knit team of managers, carers, nurses and support colleagues – and each of us is dedicated to your loved one’s care, health and wellbeing.

I first qualified as a nurse back in 1987 and completed further training in 1992. I then worked in both health and social care, working with adults with learning disabilities, mental health needs, and also as a manager of two other care homes in Suffolk. I joined Silversprings in 2020 after seeing from the Care UK website how beautiful the home is.

I believe it’s important for the home manager to be approachable, caring, and open with both their team, the families, and also and most importantly the residents that live in the home.

My favourite part of my job is knowing that no one day is the same. I love spending time with the residents and also seeing how the staff engage with them, hearing their stories from their youth and their words of wisdom to the younger generation.

I'm also the Infection Prevention & Control (IPC) Champion. My role is vital to ensuring that colleagues at Silversprings maintain a high standard of hygiene and cleanliness as this is fundamental to keeping residents, colleagues and visitors safe.

Outside of work spending time with my family is my big love, I have three grown-up children, and a beautiful granddaughter who stays regularly. I also enjoy walking my Labrador, Max, in the countryside around my home. A glass of rosé wine is my favourite tipple after a long day.

Joanne Rix Home Manager

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