Catering

and person-centred food and drink.

The work goes beyond preparing meals. Catering staff need to understand how health conditions, swallowing difficulties, allergies, cultural and religious requirements, individual preferences and changing nutritional needs can affect what and how a person eats.

Responsibilities can include:

• planning and preparing nutritious meals;
• adapting meals for individual dietary requirements;
• supporting people with dysphagia and modified-texture diets;
• responding to allergies, diabetes and other medical dietary needs;
• working with dietitians, care staff and other professionals;
• involving people receiving care in menu planning;
• monitoring feedback about meals and dining experiences;
• maintaining food hygiene and kitchen safety;
• managing stock and supplies;
• monitoring catering budgets;
• maintaining kitchen equipment;
• supporting positive, inclusive dining experiences.

Catering roles can exist in residential care, supported living and day services.

Job titles may include:

• Kitchen Assistant
• Catering Assistant
• Food Services Assistant
• Kitchen Porter
• Cook
• Chef
• Assistant Chef
• Sous Chef
• Head Chef
• Catering Manager
• Chef Manager
• Hospitality Manager.

Although catering staff do not usually provide personal care, their work contributes directly to people’s health, dignity, wellbeing and overall experience of care.

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Understanding the people you support

If you already work in Adult Social Care, you may understand people’s:

• preferences;
• routines;
• cultural backgrounds;
• communication needs;
• health conditions;
• care plans;
• levels of independence.

This can be extremely valuable in a catering environment where meals need to be built around the individual rather than simply around a standard menu.

Person-centred care

Frontline experience can help you understand that food is personal.

People should be able to have choice and have their:

• likes and dislikes;
• cultural requirements;
• religious requirements;
• health needs;
• routines;
• dignity

considered when food and drink are provided.

Nutrition and hydration awareness

Care workers often already understand the importance of:

• encouraging fluids;
• monitoring food intake;
• recognising reduced appetite;
• reporting weight loss;
• supporting people at mealtimes.

These are useful foundations for care-sector catering.

Knowledge of health conditions

You may already have experience supporting people living with:

• dementia;
• diabetes;
• learning disabilities;
• autism;
• allergies;
• physical disabilities;
• swallowing difficulties.

That understanding can help when learning how catering provision should be adapted.

Communication

You may already be comfortable speaking with:

• people receiving care;
• relatives;
• care staff;
• nurses;
• dietitians;
• other professionals.

Catering staff need these relationships to ensure that meals remain appropriate when people’s needs change.

Infection prevention and control

Frontline care experience usually provides a strong awareness of hygiene and infection prevention, which is also fundamental in food preparation environments.

Safeguarding and risk awareness

Understanding risk, escalation and the limits of your role can transfer into safe catering practice.

Documentation

Experience maintaining accurate records can transfer into:

• temperature records;
• dietary information;
• catering records;
• stock records;
• digital systems;
• budget monitoring.

Supporting independence

Care-sector catering can involve helping people maintain independence and confidence around food, including supporting people to participate safely in food preparation where appropriate.

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Food safety and hygiene

You need to understand and consistently apply food-safety requirements, including:

• safe food preparation;
• storage;
• temperature control;
• avoiding contamination;
• kitchen hygiene;
• safe service and clearing of food.

People responsible for food-safety systems also need sufficient knowledge and training to manage those systems effectively.

HACCP

You may need to develop knowledge of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles and how they are used to identify and control food-safety risks.

COSHH and workplace safety

You should understand health and safety requirements and the safe use and storage of substances and cleaning products within a kitchen environment.

Dysphagia and IDDSI

Care catering may require a much deeper understanding of swallowing difficulties than catering in some other sectors.

You should understand the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) framework and how modified-texture food and drinks are prepared safely and consistently.

Malnutrition and MUST

You should understand malnutrition risk and the role of the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) within care settings.

Although clinical assessment may be undertaken by other professionals, catering teams need to understand how nutritional concerns affect meal provision.

Food First

You should understand the Food First approach and how food can be adapted or fortified to support people who need additional nutritional intake.

Medical dietary needs

You may need stronger knowledge of how food provision is affected by:

• diabetes;
• allergies;
• medication;
• swallowing difficulties;
• reduced appetite;
• dehydration;
• other medical dietary requirements.

Person-centred menu planning

You need to be able to translate person-centred care into actual catering decisions.

This includes considering:

• individual preferences;
• culture;
• religion;
• health needs;
• feedback;
• choice;
• dining experience.

Working with health professionals

You should become comfortable working with:

• dietitians;
• speech and language therapists;
• nurses;
• care teams;
• other health professionals

where nutritional or swallowing needs require specialist input.

Stock and budget management

More senior catering roles may require responsibility for:

• ordering;
• stock control;
• waste reduction;
• suppliers;
• budgets;
• cost control.

Leadership

If you want to progress into senior chef or catering-management roles, you may also need skills in:

• supervising staff;
• allocating work;
• training staff;
• maintaining standards;
• managing performance;
• running kitchen operations.

Digital skills

DHSC identifies Level 1 of the Adult Social Care Digital Skills Framework as relevant to this pathway.

You may need to use digital systems for records, stock, catering tasks and budget monitoring.

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1. Use your existing knowledge of care as an advantage

If you already work in Adult Social Care, do not treat yourself as someone starting completely from zero.

Your understanding of:

• residents or people receiving support;
• person-centred care;
• safeguarding;
• dementia;
• communication;
• care plans;
• nutrition and hydration

can distinguish you from someone who only has general catering experience.

2. Gain practical kitchen experience

Ask about opportunities to:

• shadow the catering team;
• support mealtimes;
• help with appropriate food-service tasks;
• learn kitchen routines;
• understand how menus are developed;
• observe how specialist diets are prepared.

3. Build food-safety competence

Develop a strong foundation in:

• food hygiene;
• safe food handling;
• temperature control;
• HACCP;
• infection prevention;
• COSHH.

4. Learn care-specific nutrition

Focus particularly on the areas that make Adult Social Care catering different from general hospitality:

• dysphagia;
• IDDSI;
• malnutrition;
• MUST;
• Food First;
• diabetes;
• allergies;
• hydration;
• fortified diets;
• person-centred meal planning.

5. Learn from the people receiving care

Understand what people actually think about:

• menus;
• portion sizes;
• food choices;
• cultural options;
• dining times;
• presentation;
• mealtime atmosphere.

DHSC expects catering staff to use feedback to shape meal planning and dining experiences.

6. Work alongside the wider care team

Develop confidence liaising with:

• care staff;
• nurses;
• dietitians;
• speech and language therapists;
• activity teams;
• managers.

This helps you understand how catering contributes to the person’s wider care plan.

7. Build evidence of responsibility

As you develop, seek experience with:

• menu planning;
• specialist diets;
• stock ordering;
• food-safety monitoring;
• kitchen records;
• budgets;
• training other staff.

These responsibilities can help prepare you for senior kitchen positions.

8. Progress through kitchen responsibility

You do not necessarily need to move directly into a chef-management role.

A possible pathway might begin with:

Kitchen or Catering Assistant → Cook / Production Chef → Senior Chef / Sous Chef → Head Chef → Catering or Chef Manager

The exact route will depend on your previous catering experience and the structure of the organisation. The official Care Workforce Pathway recognises roles across this range, from kitchen assistants and catering assistants through to head chefs, catering managers and hospitality managers.

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Food-safety training

Anyone handling food needs appropriate instruction, supervision and/or food-hygiene training for the work they carry out. Training should reflect the responsibilities of the role.

Level 2 Production Chef Apprenticeship

The Production Chef Level 2 apprenticeship is an approved route for developing practical kitchen skills.

Production chefs work in team-based kitchen environments, including care homes, and develop competence in areas such as:

• food preparation;
• kitchen hygiene;
• following recipes and menus;
• safe working;
• consistent food production.

Level 3 Senior Production Chef Apprenticeship

The Senior Production Chef Level 3 apprenticeship is designed for people taking greater responsibility within a kitchen.

It includes development in:

• supervising kitchen teams;
• producing meals for specific dietary requirements;
• maintaining food-safety systems;
• managing kitchen operations;
• identifying staff-development needs;
• managing budgets and waste;
• improving efficiency and service quality.

Care homes are specifically included among the types of settings in which Senior Production Chefs may work.

Level 4 Senior Culinary Chef Apprenticeship

For people seeking further professional culinary development, the Senior Culinary Chef Level 4 apprenticeship is an approved higher-level catering and hospitality route.

Care-specific nutrition and dysphagia learning

Useful development may include training relating to:

• IDDSI;
• dysphagia;
• nutrition and hydration;
• malnutrition;
• Food First;
• allergies;
• diabetes;
• specialist diets.

Setting-specific Adult Social Care training

Depending on the people your service supports, useful learning may also include:

• dementia;
• learning disability;
• autism;
• infection prevention and control;
• safeguarding;
• health and safety.

DHSC also identifies Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism: Tier 1, with Tier 2 applicable in settings providing direct care to autistic people or people with a learning disability.

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Progression

Catering can provide progression from kitchen-support work into specialist culinary and management responsibilities.

A possible route could be:

Kitchen Assistant / Catering Assistant → Cook / Production Chef → Senior Production Chef / Sous Chef → Head Chef → Chef Manager / Catering Manager → Hospitality Manager

Progression may involve taking increasing responsibility for:

• specialist diets;
• menu development;
• food safety;
• kitchen teams;
• staff training;
• stock and purchasing;
• budgets;
• quality;
• resident dining experience.

Skills England’s Senior Production Chef standard specifically includes supervising kitchen teams, managing food-safety systems, meeting specialist dietary requirements, identifying staff-training needs and maintaining catering budgets.

Pay

Pay varies according to the role, employer, location, working hours and level of responsibility.

Kitchen-support and catering-assistant positions generally carry less responsibility than chef, senior chef, head chef and catering-management positions. More senior roles may include responsibility for staff, specialist diets, menu planning, food-safety systems, stock, budgets and overall kitchen performance.

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