At Prospect Hospice, we provide outstanding, personalised and compassionate care for everyone in Swindon, Marlborough and the surrounding areas affected by a life-limiting illness, completely free of charge. For more than 40 years, we’ve been a dedicated, non-hospital, end-of-life care service for patients and their loved ones - around the clock, every day of the year. Our mission is to ensure that anyone can access the best possible expert care whenever and wherever they need it – whether at the hospice or in their own home. As a charity, we only exist because of the generosity and support of our amazing local community.
Find out about the range of end-of-life care services that we offer to patients and their families. These delivered free of charge and are designed to provide compassionate, personalised support during every stage of a life-limiting illness in every kind of care setting, to anyone who needs it.
We couldn’t do what we do without considerable support from our local community. Find out all the different ways in which you can support Prospect Hospice, including fundraising, volunteering and purchasing from our shops. All contributions are greatly appreciated and enables us to deliver care that is free of charge to our patients and their families.
Our café sits at the heart of our hospice in Wroughton and serves a range of delicious home cooked meals to suit all tastes. Whether you're looking to catch up with friends over lunch or relax with coffee and cake, our Heart of the Hospice café has you covered.
Whether shopping with us in person or online, or donating your pre-loved goods, we thank you for supporting us through our shops where you help to raise around £2million a year for Prospect Hospice.
We pride ourselves on being a great place to work and we're always looking for outstanding people to join our team at the hospice across all areas of the charity.
Prospect Hospice is the leading provider of education and training for end-of-life care in Swindon and north Wiltshire. Working closely with you, our colleagues within partner organisations, we want to ensure that the very best care is available to everyone facing the end of life. This is why we provide education and development opportunities, all of which aim to encourage learning and build confidence in end of life care and support.
Hi, I’m Carl, the catering manager at Prospect Hospice. I’ve been here for just over a year and before that I’ve worked across various roles in the hospitality sector.
7am
I arrive at the hospice and start the day, alongside my colleague, Janet. The first thing we do every morning is check all of our equipment is in working order and sign off all safety documentation. We’ll also often have a delivery from our local grocer waiting to be put away. One of the team then sets up the Heart of the Hospice café for the day, checking that all the tables are clean and that the tea and coffee unit is fully stocked. We then check the pantry in the inpatient unit (IPU) is clean and fully stocked, ready for healthcare assistants to use for our patients, and drop off the daily menus so that our IPU patients can select their lunch and supper options. They always have two options for starter, three options for main, and three options for dessert.
8am
I review our plan for the day, checking over the menus and for any food orders or meetings we need to prepare for. Today we have an external catering order to make – a mezze platter for 10 people and I’ll do this before 9am. Throughout the morning, we also receive telephone requests for patient’s breakfasts, and so far we have had one patient request some scrambled eggs.
8.30am
Today, our facilities team is working off-site and they have asked us to prepare packed lunches for them. We know exactly what they like – Bryan will have a cheese, ham, and onion sandwich with a Diet Coke and a packet of cheese and onion crisps, while Mark will have a cheese and ham sandwich with a Coke and beef crisps. They look after us, so we look after them!
9am
It’s time to start making the sandwiches for the café. I’ll also make the salads for the café – today, we have chickpea falafel salad and tuna nicoise salad. I’ll then put the sandwiches and salads in the fridge in the café for people to buy from 11.30am.
9.30am
Tina from the communications and engagement team comes into the kitchen and asks if I’ve prepared a menu for the BBQ at our garden fete, so she can include it in the programme. I have to plan what we’re going to serve at events like this quite far in advance so we can order in the right ingredients, so I leave the kitchen to go to the computer and send her the menu.
10am
My colleague Fred has already been preparing hot lunches for the day, and at this point I will help him and get the last things ready. Today’s menu options are beef casserole, Thai green chicken curry, and vegetable casserole, along with our usual jacket potatoes. We like to have something different every day so there is always something new for our guests and visitors to try.
11.30am
We start serving lunch in the Heart of the Hospice café, and will continue service until 2pm. There are quite a few customers in the café today which is lovely to see. During lunch service, we may need to replenish some items if they’re popular – usually the chips!
12pm
We make sure lunch is ready for volunteers to serve to our patients staying with us at the hospice. They’ll have put their order in earlier and will have been able to choose from the list we serve in the café as well as a few other options. For those with special dietary requirements, those who require pureed meals or those who don’t eat very much, we can provide a tailored meal for them to suit what they need.
2pm
Lunch service ends and the Heart of the Hospice café is quiet again. The beef casserole was very popular today and most of our sandwiches sold too. Now it’s time to clean down the kitchen, and do any necessary preparation for tomorrow.
2.30pm
Once the kitchen is cleaned, I spend some time checking my emails, seeing if we have had any external catering orders or if anyone has booked onto our Sunday lunch, which we hold monthly. I’ll also take some time to look at the team rota to ensure we have the right cover across the rest of the week.
3pm
I have a few meetings to discuss investment in some new kitchen equipment and business plans. It’s not just about the cooking – I also need to ensure we have the best facilities we can to provide the best service to our patients.
3pm to 6pm
During these hours, I prepare ad hoc meal requests from our patients and stock up for the next day.
6pm
The pre-ordered supper is served to our IPU patients.
6.30pm
The end of a long but rewarding day! I won’t always be at the hospice until 6.30pm, but two of our team members are on holiday, so I’m making sure everything gets done for the day.