entertaining your community

Introduction

Councils of all sizes provide food and beverage services for a range of people. Catering managers are responsible for these services. Their ‘customers’ include elderly or disabled people attending day centres, children eating school meals, people living in residential homes, people using sports and leisure centres, visitors entertained by the mayor or leader of the council, civic dignitaries, or their own staff eating in staff restaurants.

Some councils contract out their catering services and some run profit-making services, catering for civil weddings, conferences and large functions and have restaurants in town centres serving the general public.

Work Environment

Catering managers work in council offices and are often responsible for a workforce of several hundred people. They normally try to spend time in dining areas when meals are being served – to control standards and to gauge customers’ reactions. They may spend time in travelling between different establishments to meet with headteachers, centre managers, head cooks and so on.

Catering managers usually work 37 hours per week, mainly between Monday and Friday but there may be some evening and weekend work.

Daily Activities

Catering managers ensure that council-run dining rooms, restaurants and bars serve the type of meals that customers demand. Customers’ tastes must be taken in to account and meals must be served at competitive but profitable prices.

In schools, residential homes and day care centres meals must still be of a high quality but prepared within an allocated budget. Catering managers must plan these budgets within healthy eating guidelines.

Catering managers are responsible for training their staff in both cookery and customer service skills. They provide initial training when staff join their department and monitor their progress. It is also their responsibility to make sure that head cooks in their establishments operate health, hygiene and safety procedures.

In some jobs catering managers have a marketing role to promote the council’s establishments within the area. They may also be involved in drawing up tenders detailing their department’s services and proposed costings since the department has to bid for the council’s contract in competition with external companies.

A senior catering manager may be expected to contribute to a council’s civil emergency planning and work out strategies for using local authority premises to feed people in the event of an emergency.

Skills & Interests

Catering managers need:

• leadership and management skills,
• to be experienced in food and beverage preparation and service,
• an outgoing personality,
• good communication skills,
• organisational/planning ability,
• numeracy skills,
• to be able to stay calm under pressure.

Entry Requirements

These vary depending on the seniority of the post.

As a minimum, councils will expect relevant experience, plus relevant qualifications such as NVQ/SVQs or City & Guilds qualifications in catering. These may be gained whilst working as a catering officer.

Senior managers often have higher diplomas, degrees or the Hotel, Catering and International Management Association’s professional qualifications.

Estimated salary range

This is varies a lot, depending on the level of post, but is normally £19,101-£30,891.

However, a senior manager in large local authority might have a budget of £14 million and earn over £60,000.

Please note that salary information is a guide only and there may be local agreements in place. For further information about salaries for particular positions, please contact your local council directly.

Future prospects & opportunities

Councils employ numerous catering managers in different establishments - although sometimes, in smaller establishments, this type of work is undertaken by a senior cook or chef.

There are prospects of promotion to entertainments services manager and opportunities to move into leisure and tourism work.

Related Occupations

Follow this link to view a list of all related occuptions in Entertaining Your Community.
Alternatively, follow this link to view all career profiles placed in the same job area.

Further Information & Services

Local Authority Caterers Association www.laca.co.uk

Springboard UK Ltd www.springboarduk.org.uk

Hotel, Catering and International Management Association www.hcima.org.uk

People 1st www.people1st.co.uk

You may find further information about this area of work in your local Connexions service/careers office/school careers library - under C.

What should I do next?

Look for current local government Catering Manager vacancies in the following places:

• LGjobs.com - the official recruitment website for local government.
• Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly jobs bulletins produced by local councils themselves, available from libraries, community centres, town halls/main civic buildings and central council personnel departments.
• Local council websites.
• Local newspapers
• National newspapers - The Guardian is particularly well known for its public sector job advertisements on a Wednesday.

Find out about the council and get some work experience if possible by:

• Making the most of work experience placements arranged through your school, college or university.
• Contacting councils close to your home to find out about the work experience opportunities they offer.
• Talking to someone who does the job you are interested in - ring your local council to see if someone can spare some time.
• Making an appointment to see a careers adviser for more specific information about jobs and training.