About Abbeyfield

Abbeyfield is more than a home; it’s a neighbourhood, a community, a family. Our core behaviours are to be welcoming to everyone, celebrate the positives, work collaboratively, take responsibility, and be adaptable to changing circumstances.

Best of all, we’re a charity, meaning that the interests of our valued staff and residents sit at the heart of what we do, not shareholders.

The Role

As on of our highly valued Housekeepers, you're at the front line of delivery.  You’ll ensure all aspects of the House(s) run smoothly and efficiently, by coordinating and managing all house staff.  You also ensure the catering service runs efficiently in line with budget, so the role may include cooking and meals preparation for large groups of residents.

Your role is to maintain service continuity to our residents, through ensuring an efficient handover process is adopted by all house staff. You’ll go out of your way to ensure that all residents feel welcome, included and involved in the house(s), and matters affecting the house are communicated to them as required. 

You’ll organise social activities, consistent with housing management and health and safety requirements.  You’ll consult with residents and volunteer groups, and the activities you design and provide reflect Abbeyfield values and policies, and do not interfere with the smooth running of the house, and are appropriate to the requirements of residents.

Independence of residents is maximised in line with their abilities.  And all residents remain involved in the community in line with their individual needs, aspirations and abilities.

You’ll take responsibility for ensuring all staff, volunteers, trades persons and other visitors are managed effectively when on site, and all records and administration are accurate and kept up to date.  And naturally, you will go out of your way to ensure that all areas of the House(s) are clean, tidy and meet all Health and Safety and Environmental Health requirements.

About You

First and foremost, you will be a naturally caring person, who is compassionate, and understands the needs of older people.  Further, you’ll be able to communicate, interact well with, and build strong working relationships a wide range of people in varied situations.  And in a modern workplace, as you would expect, you should be able to use computers and IT applications, and be able to read, write and work with numbers to a good standard.

A strong and supportive team player, you’ll also need to be a competent cook, who can keep to a budget.  You’ll also be skilled in supervising and supporting your team of General Assistants, and will know how to get the best from them.

If you are already experienced in working in a similar role within services for older people, and have knowledge of tenancy management and tenant participation, then even better.  It would also be beneficial if you held a current driving licence.  You will also need to have a First Aid Certificate and Food Hygiene Certificate.  However, if you do not possess these, full training will be provided to ensure you obtain these within the first few months.

And because we take the wellbeing of our residents and staff very seriously, ideally you'll also be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Rewards & Benefits

In line with your casual (bank) worker assignment agreement, we offer competitive pay that is in line with those of our employed staff in similar roles.  And depending on how many hours you work, you will accrue leave at an equivalent rate of 31 days paid leave in a full calendar year, inclusive of bank/public holidays (pro rata).

To carry out this role, you will be provided with mandatory training to get you started, as part of a comprehensive induction.  To work for us in future assignments, you will be expected to keep your mandatory training up to date.

The Abbeyfield Society