Catering Area Supervisor - Crawley to Chichester

Salary: £23,476 - £24,479 (calculated to term time only)
Contract Type: Permanent, Term Time Only (39 weeks which includes 5 Inset days)
Working Pattern: Part-time, 32.50 hours per week (7.30am-2.30pm Monday to Friday)
Locations: Covering 5 schools in Crawley, Horsham, Chichester and Littlehampton
Travel: The post holder will have the use of a WSCC allocated car for work purposes.
Interviews: Thursday 5th February

We are seeking a Catering Area Supervisor to work across 5 of our 10 special school's sites in West Sussex. You'll oversee catering teams, provide staffing support, and ensure pupils and staff enjoy nutritious, freshly cooked meals every day.

The daily responsibilities include:

• Supervise and support the day to day running of the service.
• Provide short‑notice emergency cover of Catering Assistants and Cook Supervisors across the schools.
• Work closely with the Senior Catering Officer on service changes.
• Contribute to menu planning, recipe development, including special diets, and gather feedback for improvements.
• Supervise staff to prepare and serve healthy, freshly cooked meals.
• Motivate staff, engage with stake holders and maintain service delivery.
• Ensure food safety and health & safety standards are met.
• Manage ordering and purchasing to maintain budgets.
• Catering Area Supervisors will support each other, occasionally covering across areas when needed.

If you're someone who thrives on variety, enjoys running multiple sites and providing home produced meals, we want to hear from you! We're looking for a confident communicator who can work well within a team and can self-manage their time while responding proactively to business needs.

Join our supportive, award‑winning team and enjoy a healthy work/life balance with a term-time only contract, an excellent pension scheme, and access to hundreds of fantastic staff discounts-there has never been a more exciting time to join us!

We would love to hear from you if you have:

• City & Guilds 706/1 & 2 or NVQ level 3 in Catering, or equivalent qualification, or equivalent demonstrable experience.
• Minimum Level 2 Food Safety, ideally Level 3 Food Safety trained.
• A valid driving licence, as many school locations are rural and may not be accessible by public transport.
• Good interpersonal and communication skills, both verbal and written, to interact with a range of colleagues, customers and stakeholders including pupils with special needs.
• Experience in supervising catering or hospitality teams, providing strong, compassionate, and inspiring support to engage Cook Supervisors and ensure the safe delivery of food in line with menus and policies.
• Ability to plan, prepare and cook nutritious meals, including special diets, within the required budget and following legislation and government guidelines, as well as the service's own standards.
• Strong numeracy and literacy skills, with experience in ordering, costing, and stock control, ensuring best‑value decisions and accurate handling of financial documents and policies.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to anticipate problems and resolve issues independently, planning solutions and making sound pragmatic decisions which will have a direct impact on the service.

For more information on the Key Skills as well as the Qualifications and/or experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached.

Rewards and Benefits

We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do.

Upon joining us you will have access to a range of benefits including the following:

• An excellent local government pension scheme
• A Term Time Only (TTO) contract where you will only work during periods in which schools are open.
• A range of flexible working options, depending on your job role
• Maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave
• volunteering opportunities
• Training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
• A range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers; groceries, travel, cinema tickets, days out, leisure activities, high street retailers and the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform (see ourStaff discounts page if you are a business looking to offer a discount)
• Health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and Voluntary Health Cash Plans.

For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further Information

The reference number for this role is CPP01265

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Helen Turner at

For any queries regarding your application, please contact Charlotte Blandford (Recruitment Specialist) at

Does this sound like the opportunity for you? Click apply below, upload your CV, and complete the application form, explaining how you meet the key skills in the attached job description. Please ensure all that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV.

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We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to right to work within the UK, enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, satisfactory references, and health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application, please contact

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.