Prison Chefs - Stoke on Trent in Market Drayton

Location: Telford, Stoke on Trent, Stafford & surrounding areas

Pay: £19 (Mon-Fri) up to £37 on weekends. Ongoing full-time work with a regular income, weekends & Bank Holidays are paid at an enhanced rate.

You must be able to work full time and all shift patterns once the rota is provided. Shift Patterns will be 5 days out of 7 including weekends and bank holidays up to 37.5 hours a week.

Start Date: If you have worked in a prison previously or have completed a prison vetting within the last 5 years, then you can start as soon as possible. If not, we can submit your details to the vetting team. Once completed, then you will be able to start.

The Role: Working within a prison kitchen is not your typical kitchen. You will be based inside a prison, running a busy catering operation that keeps hundreds of people well-fed every day. It’s all about high-volume, quality batch cooking—and it runs like clockwork (thanks to people like you). As you can imagine, you are required to work on site in the Prison canteens and you will be working with residents in the kitchen as part of the work party along with Civilian Catering Staff. You will be required to supervise prisoners, with food preparation, and cooking of the meals following health and food safety on site.

• Prepping and cooking large-scale meals—no tiny plates here.
• Following batch recipes to keep quality and consistency on point.
• Helping train and support Prison residents on site.
• Keeping things clean, safe, and organised.
• Working as part of a small, dedicated catering team.
• Putting away deliveries.
• Assisting with the preparation of food & other areas of the kitchen including pot washing, and basic cookery skills.
• Adhering to all relevant health and safety requirements.
• Cooking nutritious food within requirements.
• Ensuring a clean as you go policy is always operated.
• Possibility of serving food and stocking up trolleys.
• Training and supervising Prison residents on site.

This isn’t a restaurant gig—it’s a professional kitchen with purpose and structure. You’ll be making a real difference every day.

What You Bring:

• Kitchen experience, ideally in batch or volume cooking.
• A cool head, solid work ethic, and a sense of humour.
• A team-player attitude and clear communication.
• A calm, respectful approach to working in secure settings.
• Previous experience as a chef up to supervisory level or worked in a prison previously.
• Previous experience within contract catering or cooking food in bulk.
• For an immediate start ideally, you would have prison checks completed within the last year, or willing to go through one with the prison directly, this can take some time to be returned.
• Flexibility in shift patterns including weekends - must be able to cover full time hours.
• Great communication and teamwork skills.
• Level 2 food hygiene certificate dated within the last 3 years.
• Happy to conduct extra Prison checks, due to the environment of the role.
• Happy to work in a prison, with prison catering staff onsite.
• An in date Enhanced DBS covering child or adult or both workforce DATED WITHIN THE LAST 12 MONTHS ideally on the new updated service programme. (we do have the facilities to put you through one at a cost).
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Due to certain locations, a full UK driving license is required along with own access to a vehicle.
• Bonus if you’ve worked in school, hospital, MOD, or care catering—or just like the satisfaction of feeding a lot of people well.

What You Get:

• Reliable hours and structured days (no late nights!).
• A supportive kitchen crew.
• The chance to be part of something meaningful, day in and day out.
• As we have agreements with national contracts we can offer work whilst waiting on a start date and extra work on your days off.
• Great pay rates paid weekly.
• Ongoing work, offering full time hours.
• Dedicated consultant.
• Great opportunity for a foot in the door with a fantastic company.
• Holiday accrual.
• Company pension scheme.
• Some shifts can offer an early finish.
• Not every weekend worked.
• Even though a lot of your roles will be on a temporary basis, these can quite easily lead to permanent work for the right candidates.

The Commute: If you have a car and are flexible with travelling, great, majority of our prisons offer on site parking. Due to the location, a few of the prisons will need your own transport, however, if you want to be considered then please reach out to us, to discuss your options.

Working Hours: As you will be working within a prison the hours can vary every shift, once you start your assignment with the prison you will receive a rota, and the hours can vary from 6am till 7pm, you must be able to commit within these hours, and work weekends as and when required. Weekly average is between 41 hours and 39 hours per week, some even offer an earlier finish, or working 4 days on 4 days off.

Ready to Apply? We can’t wait to speak with you, so if you think this is just what you’re looking for then click apply today to book your interview slot with Blue Arrow, our registration process takes less than 10 minutes to complete.

P.S. This is a unique setting with big impact. If you like your food hearty and your kitchen well-run, we’d love to hear from you.

Blue Arrow is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and is committed to helping find great work opportunities for great people.