Housekeeper

The post holder will work as an integral part of the ward teams. He/she will be responsible for the co-ordination of all patient facilities services in the ward areas and ensure a clean, safe and comfortable environment.
The main elements of the role are ensuring the delivery of cleaning, catering, and minor maintenance, together with other specified tasks to meet individual patient needs as determined by the ward sister/charge nurse.
The post holder will be required to work closely with contractors and support service departments. He/she will monitor quality standards, report deficiencies and take appropriate action.
The post holder will be responsible for weekly clinical environment audits on Tendable.
The post holder will be responsible for ensuring all equipment necessary for patient care delivery is available to the nursing staff., + To assist in monitoring and maintaining cleaning standards on the ward.
+ To carry out spot cleaning to ensure spillages are dealt with swiftly and efficiently.
+ To ensure general and specialist equipment, e.g. drip stands, incubators and commodes are cleaned on a regular basis as per cleaning policy.
+ To ensure the ward is safe and tidy at all times, e.g. remove clutter, tidy notice boards, signage, etc.
+ To identify any problems with cleanliness and report to the ward sister.
+ To ensure specialist cleaning of surfaces and furnishings.
+ To carry out monitoring of service delivery especially related to cleaning, food, linen and the environment at the agreed frequency.
+ To inform the ward sister of outcomes of monitoring and agree action plans ensuring action is taken.
+ To manage the ward's defect call log book, ensuring all defects are logged, reported, recorded and closed down as appropriate.
+ To monitor and co-ordinate other ad hoc maintenance, liaising with the support service helpdesk as required for other services.
+ To carry out regular equipment monitoring in accordance with procedures.
+ To transport and dispose of clinical, domestic and confidential waste as per the policy, e.g. taking waste to the ward disposal area.
+ To monitor the access and security and use of premises and facilities.
+ To respect the privacy and dignity of patients whilst carrying out housekeeping duties.
+ To ensure equipment to be returned for reprocessing is stored safely., To assist in monitoring and maintaining cleaning standards on the ward.
To carry out spot cleaning to ensure spillages are dealt with swiftly and efficiently.
To ensure general and specialist equipment, e.g. drip stands, incubators and commodes are cleaned on a regular basis as per cleaning policy.
To ensure the ward is safe and tidy at all times, e.g. remove clutter, tidy notice boards, signage, etc.
To maintain upkeep of patients' bed areas.
To identify any problems with cleanliness and report to the ward sister.
To ensure specialist cleaning of surfaces and furnishings.
To ensure isolation nursing areas are cleaned appropriately.
Catering
To prepare and serve hot/cold snacks (e.g. toast) as requested - offering a 24-hour snack service.
To serve meals in conjunction with the nursing team, ensuring patients intake is known and that their dietary needs are met.
To provide eating assistance, e.g. cutting up food, placing food within reach, encouraging patients to eat.
To prepare hot/cold beverages including appropriate trolley/equipment.
To ensure all food and beverages are served at the correct temperature according to food hygiene regulations.
To prepare areas where food and beverages are served/consumed to ensure a pleasant environment for patients.
To wash all equipment/utensils used in preparation, regenerating, serving and consuming food and beverages.
To take responsibility for the ward kitchen, ensuring it is clean at all times, e.g. discarding out-of-date food, stock rotation.
To ensure refrigerated food is labelled and stored correctly as per policy.
To ensure that discharged and newly-admitted patients' meal requirements are actioned in conjunction with the ward nurse.
To co-ordinate extra meal requirements that may arise.
To ensure patients whose fluid intake is not medically restricted have access to fresh water (e.g. jugs and glasses).
Maintaining the environment
To carry out monitoring of service delivery especially related to cleaning, food, linen and the environment at the agreed frequency.
To inform the ward sister of outcomes of monitoring and agree action plans ensuring action is taken.
To manage the ward's defect call log book, ensuring all defects are logged, reported, recorded and closed down as appropriate.
To monitor and co-ordinate other ad hoc maintenance, liaising with the support service helpdesk as required for other services.
To provide household maintenance duty in line with local policy.
- replace light bulbs, clock batteries etc.
- unblock sinks etc.
To carry out regular equipment monitoring in accordance with procedures.
To transport and dispose of clinical, domestic and confidential waste as per the policy, e.g. taking waste to the ward disposal area.
To clean and prepare beds and handle linen. To report the bed availability to Matron/Bed Bureau.
To monitor the access and security and use of premises and facilities.
To ensure the patient's space is respected including attending to patients' fruit, flowers etc.
To respect the privacy and dignity of patients whilst carrying out housekeeping duties.
To maintain the safety of people's property and belongings.
To minimise the potential for adverse behaviour and security breaches.
To use communication skills to manage any aggressive and abusive behaviour.
To ensure equipment to be returned for reprocessing is stored safely.
General
To receive, welcome and guide visitors on the ward, liaising with other staff as appropriate.
To transport equipment, consumables and written information as required.
To maintain and update paper-based records and information as required.
To respond to requests for general information.
To receive and pass on information to others, maintaining confidentiality.
To report complaints and take appropriate action.
To assist with training of staff involved with ward housekeeping services into ward routines to achieve required standards.
To be aware of any new food hygiene standards, changes to waste categorisation etc.
Working practices and relationships
To ensure their own actions reduce risks to health and safety and to promote a health and safety culture within the workplace.
To respond to emergencies as appropriate.
To maintain effective working relationships.
To foster people's equality, diversity and rights.
To provide an effective customer service.
To maintain environmental, food hygiene and personal hygiene.
To maintain complete confidentiality with regard to all patient issues.
Support of people
To ensure patients have adequate supplies to meet their basic needs, e.g. toiletries as required.
To ensure the ward has sufficient stocks to meet patient and staff needs.
To assist people with accessing and interpreting written information e.g. cards and letters.
To explain the correct use of equipment to people, e.g. nurse call.
To communicate effectively with people.
To ensure patients that are waiting to be admitted are kept informed of bed availability and length of wait.
Please ensure you check the email account (including junk/spam boxes) from which you apply regularly as we will use this to contact you regarding your application.
Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.
Candidates applying for the role of Healthcare Assistant on the staff bank should note that due to the nature of the role, workers must be aged 18 or above when commencing in post. Applicants are therefore welcome from those aged over 18 or within 3 months' of their 18^th birthday.
The Trust is committed to promoting a healthy work-life balance and achieve fair, equitable and consistent practice. We welcome flexible working requests and will consider a variety of flexible working arrangements from day one of your employment. Not all roles are suitable for every flexible working opportunity all of the time. Flexible working options may include reduced hours, compressed hours, fixed shifts, time back in lieu and home working.
The Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity; we value the contribution of individual talent, skills, knowledge and experience and aim for a workforce demography representative of the local community. We encourage applicants from the following groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce black, Asian and minority ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ+), disabled, male and age 16-24.
Trust policy requires that the cost of submitting & processing the successful applicant/s DBS application be recovered via salary deduction following start in post. The amount of £18+£5 (standard disclosure) or £38+£5 (enhanced disclosure) will be deducted from salary, in manageable monthly instalments for up to 3 months following commencement of employment. Bank posts require upfront payment.
From April 2017, Skilled visa applicants and their adult dependant(s) will be required to provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have lived in consecutively for 12 months or more in the past ten years.
Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.
This organisation has a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All staff must ensure they adhere to the organisations safeguarding children and adults' policy and comply with the Local Safeguarding Children and Adult Board procedures.
Staff should be mindful of their responsibility to safeguard children and adults in any activity performed on behalf of the organisation in line with the requirements of statutory guidance and legislation.
All employees (and volunteers)are expected maintain their safeguarding knowledge and skills by completing mandatory safeguarding training which includes understanding and recognising the signs of abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action.
As an organisation, we have adopted the Merseyside Domestic abuse workplace scheme which supports our staff who are experiencing Domestic Abuse /any forms of sexual violence.

Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first paypoint of the relevant band.

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was created on 1 October 2019 following the merger of two adult acute Trusts, Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust.
The merger provides an opportunity to reconfigure services in a way that provides the best healthcare services to the city and improves the quality of care and health outcomes that patients experience.
The Trust runs Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool University Dental Hospital and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
It serves a core population of around 630,000 people across Merseyside as well as providing a range of highly specialist services to a catchment area of more than two million people in the North West region and beyond.