Contract: Zero hours contract
Salary: £14.24 per hour (£12.71 plus £1.57 holiday pay)
Location: Southampton, SO30 2HL
Closing date: Monday 12 October 2026
Interview date: 19 & 20 October 2026
We’re recruiting a Standby Pet Welfare Assistant for on-site animal care, for our Rehoming & Fostering team in Southampton!
At Blue Cross, we're dedicated to providing the best care possible to pets in need. As a Standby Pet Welfare Assistant for our onsite services, you'll play an important role in our mission, ensuring that every pet receives the love, attention, and support they deserve during their stay at our Burford rehoming centre. This is a zero hours contract.
As a skilled animal handler and assessor, you will be responsible for the ‘preparation stage’ with the pets in our care which involves caring, carrying out assessments and rehabilitation plans, preparing them for the ‘adoption stage’ or the best possible outcome for their circumstances with minimal delay.
As a Standby Pet Welfare Assistant, you will ensure that the welfare standards are met and that rehabilitation plans are followed and supported for pets in our care. Working independently and with the team you will carry out meetings with owners giving up their pet, ensuring all information is recorded, paperwork completed and that the pet is immediately assessed for behavioural or veterinary problems. Working closely with the Adoptions Coordinator you will provide additional in person or virtual advice and practical demonstrations to ensure new owners are fully aware of the work that has been done with the pet and how to continue with any other additional behaviour training or medical provision. This role is mostly based in our kennels department.
At our Burford rehoming centre, we provide onsite accommodation for pets in our care 24/7. Overnight shifts are usually undertaken by team members who live on site. Occasionally, you will be expected to carry out night checks or stay in onsite accommodation overnight when the resident team members are either not working or away for a period of time.
You will be on a zero hour’s contract and therefore you will not have regular hours of work but will be on standby to work shifts as and when required.
If you excel in an environment where you can see the difference you make every day, then this is the role for you. Interested? Then apply and let’s work together to see if this is the role for you.
As a skilled animal handler and assessor, you will be intuitive with pets, empathetic and welfare focused having worked in a similar animal related environment. You will also be used to assessing the needs of a pet, alert to the behavioural signs and have a basic knowledge of the use of medication, diabetes management. In addition, you will have a fundamental understanding that the best welfare intervention for a pet is to find a new home and leave onsite pet accommodation as quickly as possible.
You will be self-motivated, forward thinking with a collaborative and creative approach to your work, which will ensure to bring your best pragmatic ideas for the care of the pets to ensure the best outcome is achieved. In addition, you will be able to quickly assimilate information, be competent at accurately recording information while also conducting conversations with clients and stakeholders. You will be an excellent communicator, approachable with strong interpersonal skills.
You will know what it is like to work in an emotionally charged environment and have excellent ‘bounce back ability’ and resilience. In addition, you will be emotionally intelligent, showing empathy and knowing how to support clients and colleagues.
Knowledge, skills, and experience
- Experience of having previously worked or volunteered with domestic animals or in an animal welfare environment.
- Previous experience in working in a customer focused environment and used to achieving a high level of customer satisfaction.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Good organisational and administration skills to include computerised systems.
- Current full driving licence.
It would be great (but not essential) if you also had:
- Qualification or similar experience in animal behaviour or animal training.
- Experience of cash handling.
- Experience of working to strict health and safety procedures.
- Understanding of safeguarding issues.
Want to know more detail? Great! We have attached the job description which hopefully gives you everything you need.
How to apply
Click the apply button below and complete the online application process before the closing date on Monday 12th October 2026.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive an overwhelming response.
Our people are the most important part of delivering our purpose. If it were not for their amazing efforts and commitment, we would not be able to make the difference that we do today.
In return, Blue Cross wants to ensure we provide you with the best working environment we can. We want you to be happy working for us and will do everything we can to make sure you are.
Our generous benefits package includes:
- Programmes for physical and mental wellbeing support
- Free access to GP via MetLife- 24/7 GP services, private prescriptions and more for you and your family
- Pension scheme with enhanced employer contribution
- Charity worker discounts across a variety of retailers
