Vacancies

Cook (Children's Disability Services - Cannock)

Main Responsibility

You will :

• work within the children's home, providing home cooked meals for children with a range of dietary needs including allergens.
• be planning menus, ordering food within budgets and assisting the young people with independent skills.

What you can expect from us:

We have a detailed induction programme specifically designed to cover all elements of the role, so that you have all the tools and knowledge ready to get going.

We have an ambitious, confident, and motivated management team who are experienced, supportive, and keen to help you learn and grow. 

You will have 1:1 reflective space with managers, a comprehensive employee support offer, and lots of opportunity to network with other professionals that support children.

The Ideal Candidate

We are looking for an experienced cook who will:

• engage with the young people to encourage healthy eating
• understand dietary and allergen needs.
• plan meals in advance.  You'll be expected to cook fresh home cooked meals.

What we are looking for:

• Passion – Thinking creatively to ensure that our children are encouraged to eat healthy food and try new dishes.   We are looking for passionate people (irrelevant of length of experience) who truly care and want to make a difference to children, young people and families.
• Challenge – Some days will be tough, for our children, for you, and for your colleagues - we're after someone who is dedicated and committed, and who will always go that extra mile for our children (even on the bad days).  Working as part of a close professional team is really important and you will need to be a team player to get through those tough times.
• Forward thinking – We are an expanding service with big ideas and aspirational views.  We are looking for workers who can join our team and join us on this exciting journey, making contributions to help shape and inform the future of the service for our children
• Values – We are looking for someone who has values aligned to those that are integral to our service and our organisation - supportive, innovative, respectful and collaborative

Are you interested?

You are welcome to contact any one of our Residential Managers, Zou Mohammed zou.mohammed @staffordshire.gov.uk or Bursar, Sue Wheeler susan.wheeler@staffordshire.gov.uk to discuss the role and gain more information about the service.  They can be contacted either by email or phone on 01283 845237

Interview date to be confirmed

We embrace strength-based approaches and offer a rewarding work-life balance.

When applying please ensure your supporting statement shows evidence how you meet the criteria for the role. 

We encourage our children to participate and get involved in all decisions, and recruitment is no different. It is really important to us that anyone joining the residential team has the skills, abilities, and outlook that our children tell us they need from us.

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too. 

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance. 

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post. 

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.