Weekend and Evening Exotic and Farm Animal Care Assistant
Location: Plympton, Plymouth
Job type: Part-time, permanent
Hours: Weekend mornings and agreed evening shifts, with the possibility of additional hours
Pay: £20 per morning shift and £15 per evening shift
Start date: Immediate
Job summary
Would you enjoy helping to care for wallabies, a crested porcupine and a varied collection of farm animals at a unique animal-assisted education provision in Plympton?
Bespoke Engaging Education Services Ltd, known as BEESUK, is seeking an experienced, dependable and methodical person to support the care of our animals during weekend mornings and agreed evening shifts.
This is a small but important paid role for someone who takes pride in completing animal-care routines carefully, consistently and on time. Duties include feeding, watering, welfare checks, cleaning, record keeping, biosecurity and ensuring that animals and enclosures are safe and secure.
The successful candidate will need demonstrable practical animal-care experience, suitable references and the ability to follow written procedures accurately. Enthusiasm for animals is important, but reliability, honesty, communication and attention to detail are equally important.
There may also be opportunities for additional paid hours involving animal care, grounds maintenance, practical site work and holiday or sickness cover.
About Bespoke Engaging Education Services Limited
BEESUK is an alternative education provision supporting vulnerable and neurodivergent young people through practical, therapeutic and animal-assisted education.
Our Plympton site is home to a mixed collection of farm livestock and exotic animals, including wallabies and a crested porcupine.
Although the role offers an unusual opportunity to work around exotic species, its main focus is dependable routine care, welfare monitoring, cleanliness, security and the consistent completion of established procedures.
Working pattern
The core role includes:
- Saturday morning animal-care shift
- Sunday morning animal-care shift
- Agreed evening closing shifts
- Occasional holiday, sickness or emergency cover
- Potential additional paid hours according to operational need and the candidate’s skills
Morning shifts
Morning shifts require a prompt 9.30 am arrival.
All morning tasks must be completed efficiently and safely so that the animals have been checked, cared for and released into their appropriate daytime areas by 10.00 am.
The full morning routine will normally take between one and one and a half hours, including any remaining feeding, watering, cleaning, welfare checks, records and site-security tasks.
Punctuality is essential because delays may affect animal welfare, feeding routines and the safe release of animals.
Evening shifts
Evening shifts are primarily concerned with safely securing the animals for the night.
Most animals naturally return to their sleeping areas as daylight fades. The evening worker must arrive promptly at the agreed time around dusk, check that each animal is safely inside the correct sleeping area and secure the relevant doors and gates.
The evening shift cannot operate at one fixed time throughout the year because it is determined by changing daylight hours.
During winter, attendance may be required in the late afternoon or early evening. During summer, the shift may take place considerably later.
Prompt attendance is important. Once animals have settled into their sleeping areas, they need to be secured without unnecessary delay to reduce the risk from predators, including foxes, and to protect them from other night-time hazards.
Most evening shifts are straightforward and will normally take between 30 minutes and one hour. Occasionally, however, an animal may not have settled as expected, an enclosure may require attention or a welfare concern may need to be investigated.
In these circumstances, the worker must remain calm, follow the relevant procedure and contact the designated manager where assistance or further instructions are needed. The worker must not leave until the animals are safe and secure or appropriate support has arrived.
Pay
- £20 for each completed morning shift
- £15 for each completed evening shift
- Additional necessary and authorised working time paid separately
- Paid induction and supervised training
- Additional paid hours may be available
Actual working time will be recorded, and any extra work required beyond the normal shift duties must be reported.
Main responsibilitiesMorning animal-care duties
- Arrive promptly by 9.30 am
- Prepare and provide the correct feed for each animal or enclosure
- Check, clean and replenish drinking water
- Carry out visual health and welfare checks
- Observe animals for signs of illness, injury, discomfort, stress or unusual behaviour
- Release animals safely into their appropriate daytime areas by 10.00 am
- Complete routine cleaning and basic husbandry
- Follow written animal-care checklists in the required order
- Complete basic enrichment and environmental checks
- Check animal housing, fencing, gates, doors and locks
- Record completed tasks and relevant observations
- Report welfare concerns, mistakes, omissions or unfinished work promptly
Evening duties
- Arrive promptly at the agreed dusk-based time
- Confirm that animals have returned to their designated sleeping areas
- Check that no animal has been left outside, trapped or secured in the wrong area
- Close and secure animal houses, enclosure doors and gates
- Complete the evening welfare and security checklist
- Check for damaged fencing, failed locks, predator risks or immediate hazards
- Report any animal that has not settled or returned as expected
- Contact the designated manager promptly where assistance is required
- Record completion of the shift and any concerns identified
Hygiene and biosecurity
- Follow site-specific hygiene and biosecurity procedures
- Use designated gloves, footwear and equipment correctly
- Change or disinfect protective equipment between relevant animal areas
- Keep feed, water and cleaning equipment within their designated areas
- Avoid transferring waste, bedding, tools or equipment between incompatible areas
- Use disinfectants and personal protective equipment correctly
- Report any actual or suspected cross-contamination immediately
- Follow corrective instructions where a biosecurity concern arises
Practical and site duties
Where additional hours are offered and the candidate has the appropriate experience, duties may include:
- Minor fencing repairs and maintenance
- Basic carpentry
- Basic plumbing tasks
- General enclosure and site maintenance
- Vegetation management
- Use of suitable grounds-maintenance machinery
- Reporting defects, damage and hazards
- Assisting with practical improvements to animal areas
Any machinery or specialist equipment may only be used where the worker is appropriately trained, competent and authorised.
Essential skills and experience
Applicants must have:
- Demonstrable practical animal-care experience
- Experience of feeding, watering, cleaning and carrying out routine welfare checks
- At least one suitable animal-care referee who can confirm their experience and reliability
- An understanding of hygiene, infection control or animal biosecurity
- Awareness of cross-contamination risks
- The ability to follow written instructions and checklists accurately
- A methodical and consistent approach
- Good observation and strong attention to detail
- The confidence to report concerns, mistakes or incomplete work promptly
- The ability to work responsibly without direct supervision once trained
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Good general IT skills
- Confidence using mobile apps and digital task-management systems
- Reliable weekend and seasonally changing evening availability
- The ability to arrive promptly at 9.30 am for morning shifts
- The flexibility to attend evening shifts at times linked to dusk
- The physical ability to undertake routine outdoor animal-care duties
- The ability to work outdoors in different weather conditions
- Answer all of the pre-screening questions
- Own reliable transport
Own transport is essential because of the shift timings, the need for punctual attendance and the limited practicality of relying on public transport for short morning and dusk-based shifts.
Relevant experience may have been gained through paid employment, recognised voluntary work, farming, veterinary practice, equine care, a sanctuary, wildlife organisation, zoo or a comparable animal-care setting.
Desirable skills and experience
It would be advantageous to have:
- Experience with exotic animals
- Experience with livestock, poultry or mixed-species collections
- Experience in a farm, zoo, sanctuary, veterinary practice, wildlife setting or educational animal environment
- A relevant animal-care, agricultural, veterinary or zoological qualification
- Experience applying formal biosecurity procedures
- Experience administering medication under instruction
- Knowledge of zoonotic disease risks
- Animal first-aid training
- Experience using digital animal-care records
- Previous lone-working experience
- Experience with animal enrichment and environmental monitoring
- Basic carpentry skills
- Basic plumbing skills
- Fencing installation or repair experience
- Mechanical competence
- Experience carrying out basic machinery checks and minor maintenance
- A full UK driving licence
The following qualifications or equivalent recognised certificates would be particularly advantageous:
- LANTRA brush cutter or strimmer qualification
- Tractor operation qualification
- Ride-on mower qualification
- Cross-cut chainsaw qualification
- Chainsaw felling qualification for trees up to approximately 9 inches in diameter
These practical qualifications are desirable rather than essential for the core animal-care shifts, but may increase the opportunity for additional paid hours.
Personal qualities
The role will suit someone who is:
- Dependable and punctual
- Calm, observant and responsible
- Methodical without being unnecessarily rigid
- Honest and accountable
- Comfortable following established procedures
- Willing to ask for guidance when unsure
- Able to remain focused during routine or repetitive tasks
- Sensible and calm when animals behave unexpectedly
- An excellent verbal communicator
- Able to produce clear and accurate written records
- Confident using smartphones, apps and digital task-management systems
- Practical and willing to help with general site tasks
- Committed to maintaining high standards when working alone
- Genuinely motivated by animal welfare
Training and competency
The successful candidate will complete a paid induction and supervised training period before working independently.
Training will include:
- Animal-specific feeding and care routines
- Morning and evening checklists
- Welfare monitoring and escalation
- Safe release and securing of animals
- Predator and enclosure-security risks
- Hygiene and biosecurity controls
- Correct use of personal protective equipment
- Cleaning and disinfection
- Digital task-management and record keeping
- Shift handovers
- Emergency contacts and escalation procedures
- Site and enclosure security
Previous experience is required, but the successful candidate will still need to demonstrate competence in BEESUK’s site-specific routines.
Independent working will begin only after the relevant duties have been observed and signed off.
Pre-employment checks
Appointment will be subject to:
- Satisfactory animal-care references
- Evidence of relevant practical experience
- Confirmation of the right to work in the UK
- Successful completion of a paid practical assessment
- Successful completion of induction and competency checks
- Appropriate safeguarding checks relevant to the duties and level of contact involved
Because the site is also used by vulnerable and neurodivergent young people, the successful candidate may be required to complete an Enhanced DBS check, depending on the duties, working arrangements and level of contact associated with the final role.
How to apply
Please email:
- Your current CV
- A covering letter of no more than 250 words
Your covering letter should briefly explain:
- Your relevant animal-care experience
- The animals or settings you have worked with
- Your experience of hygiene, infection control or biosecurity
- Why you would be dependable and methodical in this role
- Your availability for weekend mornings and seasonally changing evening shifts
- Any practical skills, machinery qualifications or maintenance experience you could bring to the wider site
Please use the email subject line:
Application: Weekend and Evening Animal Care Assistant
Finish your covering letter with this sentence:
I understand that morning shifts require a prompt 9.30 am arrival and that evening shift times change throughout the year because they are linked to dusk.
Applications may not be shortlisted where the CV is missing, the covering letter substantially exceeds the word limit or the requested information has not been addressed.
Pay: £13.33 per hour
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Free parking
- On-site parking
Application question(s):
- Do you have your own transport?
- Do you live in Plymouth, Devon, UK or within 30 mins drive from Plympton?
- Are you competent with using computers/Smart Phones/Tablets?
- Would you class yourself as a highly organised individual?
- Do you agree to submit one application email containing your CV and covering letter, and to avoid sending repeated follow-up emails during the shortlisting period unless we contact you or you need to correct an important error?
Experience:
- Animal care: 1 year (required)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person
