Catering manager [1]
NHS catering managers make sure our patients and staff have highly nutritious, high quality food and drink when they need it.
Catering managers in the NHS have a relevant qualification, usually a degree or HND eg in hospitality management, hotel and catering management or culinary arts management.
To get onto a degree or HND course you usually need appropriate level 3 qualifications. Some cooks or chefs enter the NHS as catering assistants and take qualifications while they are working and gaining experience. If you join the NHS as a catering manager you will be given the training you need to introduce you to the department and its systems and procedures. You are likely to have opportunities to take further qualifications. You may also be expected to go on short courses in particular topics such as special diets.
Catering staff working in the NHS are paid on the Agenda for Change (AfC) pay system. As a cook team manager, you'll typically be on AfC band 4, and with further training and experience, you could apply for posts as a catering manager at AfC bands 5 and 6. Catering managers in the NHS work standard hours of around 37.5 a week. They may work shifts including early starts and evenings. Terms and conditions will usually be different for catering managers staff working outside of the NHS.
As a catering manager, you have to be interested in food and drink, flexible and adaptable, able to plan ahead and prioritise and keen to provide good customer service. You'll need good organisational, management, budgeting, problem-solving and communication skills.
With experience, catering managers can progress by being responsible for larger departments. With further experience, they may become head of a trust’s catering service. There may be opportunities outside the NHS.
Related roles
- Chef/cook [2]
- Facilities management [3]
- Hotel services management [4]
- Housekeeper [5]
Neurologist [6]
Neurologists diagnose, treat and manage conditions affecting the brain and spinal cord, and disorders of the nerves and muscles that activate movement and transmit sensations from around the body to the brain.
Training usually starts with a five year first degree in medicine. You’ll then complete two years of foundation training, two years of core training (CT1-2) and four years of specialty training (ST3-6).
Doctors may work up to 48 hours a week. The working hours may sometimes extend beyond the normal working day including early mornings, evenings, weekends and on call. The basic salary ranges from £29,384 to £34,012. Once you start your specialty training as a neurologist employed by the NHS, you can expect to earn a salary of at least £40,257, which can increase to between £84,559 and £114,003 as a consultant.
You'll need excellent communication skills to manage a wide range of relationships with colleagues, and patients and their families. You'll be emotionally resilient, have excellent problem-solving and diagnostic skills and work well in teams and under pressure. You'll also be very organised for the benefit of patients.
In 2020 there were 207 applications for 50 specialty training places. You could specialise or conduct research in areas such as stroke medicine, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis (MS), sleep medicine or pain management. You could teach medical or postgraduate students or get involved in research.
Related roles
- Cardiologist [7]
- Geriatric medicine [8]
- Neurosurgeon [9]
- Rehabilitation medicine [10]