Food or facilities? The changing role of catering managers in the healthcare environment

Abstract

Purpose

This research paper seeks to address the roles that managers within the UK's National Health Service, who are responsible for catering and related facilities management, perform and to consider the responsibilities, in terms of skills, that these roles impose.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reports a survey of the membership of the Hospital Caterers Association in the UK. The background and training of catering professionals in healthcare are considered together with their long‐term career aspirations.

Findings

The findings of the survey point to a management workforce which has skills which do not closely match the demands of the responsibilities that they carry. In addition, the NHS constitutes a relatively insular labour market within which inward and outward mobility is rare.

Originality/value

This paper is important in understanding the nature of change within the hospital catering management labour market and suggests a need for the NHS, in particular, to address career development in a more structured manner, in view of changing expectations of work in the area.

Citation

Baum, T. (2006), "Food or facilities? The changing role of catering managers in the healthcare environment", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 138-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/00346650610664878