Linen Services Assistant in Ormskirk

We want talented and enthusiastic people from all backgrounds to join #TeamMWL, with us you can learn, grow and develop yourself and your career, realising your true ambitions and aspirations.

Whatever you’re looking for in your career, you’ll find it here at MWL.

Main area Linen services Grade NHS AfC: Band 2 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday - Friday) Job ref 409-8132924

Site Ormskirk Hospital Town Ormskirk Salary £25,272 Per Annum Salary period Yearly Closing 16/08/2026 23:59 Interview date 25/08/2026

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to "name of trust" transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Linen Services Assistant to join our team.

A Linen Services Assistant atOrmskirk Hospitalensures wards and departments have a constant supply of clean linen and uniforms by delivering, sorting, and restocking supplies, while also managing uniform services like measuring and ordering for staff, and maintaining stock records, all to support patient care and hospital efficiency.

Main duties of the job

• Provide a customer focused service.
• To ensure wards and departments receive clean, laundered linen in quantities appropriate to the demands of their service.
• To adhere to safe working practices in all aspects of hygiene management.
• To adhere to safe working practices in all aspects of risk management and security.
• To ensure the patient environment is maintained to a high standard.
• To undertake mandatory training in infection control and comply with all Trust Infection Control policies relevant to the post particularly with regards to the hand hygiene policy.
• To ensure compliance to all Trust Risk Management, Research Governance and Infection Control Policies and Procedures and abide by the Standards for Better Health.
• Take responsibility for managing own health and well-being.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

• To participate in the sorting, production and finishing of clean linen and dispatch to wards and departments and external contracts.
• To liaise directly with wards and departments and external contracts as required and use initiative and judgement to overcome day to day operational issues.
• Sort and grade used linen from hospital wards, departments and contract work.
• To load industrial washing machines with used linen, programme and empty machines of clean linen
• To load, operate and empty the dryers.
• To prepare linen for the calendar/folder.
• To process linen from calendar/folder to finishing area.
• To dry fold items.
• To prepare articles for the tunnel finisher and operate the machine.
• To package and dispatch all clean linen to wards, departments or external contracts.
• To maintain a safe and clean working environment.
• Cleaning of structures, equipment and components manually.
• To provide linen checking duties on Southport Hospital Site and Ormskirk Site as required.
• Linen checker ensures that adequate stocks are supplied to wards by using a “top up” system.
• Linen Checking duties also require communication and liaison with ward staff and managers.

STAFF TRAINING

• Staff will be trained in all aspects of linen services role and Standard Operating Procedures.
• To undertake local induction training of 4 weeks as minimum or until deemed competent.
• All trained staff are expected to display a flexible and supportive attitude to their work and colleagues, providing guidance and assistance to new or existing staff.
• Ensure an understanding of COSHH regulations and comply with these when using and handling chemicals.
• Complete and maintain competency levels.
• Participate in staff appraisal system and attend training in accordance with your personal development plan.

QUALITY & RISK

• Ensure good customer relations working with wards and departments and other groups of staff.
• Maintain and improve all aspects of the service.
• Participate, as appropriate, in staff involvement groups for all aspects of quality.
• Ensure a high standard to finished articles.
• Ensure all appropriate hygiene/temperature monitoring is carried out and recorded for every process.
• Ensure compliance with guidelines laid down in BS EN 14065.
• Responsible for the safe use of all equipment.
• Ensure compliance and operational observance of safe working practices as detailed in all aspects of risk management.
• Maintain a high level of personal hygiene as advised by control of infection.
• Ensure compliance with all Trust policies.
• Take responsibility for managing own health and wellbeing.

FINANCE / PLANNING & ORGANISATION

• Ensure economic use of all materials.
• Ensure good practice to minimise waste.
• Ensure stock levels are maintained and that stocks are ordered before minimum levels reached in order to ensure continuity of service.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Basic Numeracy and literacy

Knowledge & Experience

• Large scale or NHS laundry work
• Working on a production line

Skills

• Customer Care Skills
• Working as part of a team
• Ability to instruct other less qualified staff
• Use of mechanical/electrical machines

Other

• Ability to work repetitively
• Ability to stand for long periods of time
• Ability to deal with Varied deadlines and adhoc pressures
• Ability to work under pressure
• Professional and hygiene awareness/ appearance
• Varied Shifts
• Possibility of contact with body fluids (soiled linen)
• Weekend and Bank Holiday Working
• Working in high temperatures

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact Recruitment@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

eVisa Update

For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK.

Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account.

Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:

• Understand how to generate an eVisa share code

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

We encourage you to enrol for the DBS Update Service which has a small annual fee of £13 per year.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
• Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is a non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website.

You will be expected to undertake the Trusts' commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here .

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.

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