Night Animal Care Assistant

Contract: Permanent, full time (average of 42 hours p/week worked on a shift rota)

Salary: £27,973 plus an unsocial hours allowance which equates to £37,204 per year

Location: Grimsby, Lincolnshire

Closing date: Wednesday 11th November 2026

Interview date: Wednesday 18th & Thursday 19th November 2026

We’ve been caring for pets in the Grimsby community since 1959, supporting more than 10,000 pets each year. Our busy veterinary hospital provides a wide range of services, from routine procedures such as neutering to complex surgeries and advanced diagnostic treatments.

If you’re passionate about animal welfare, enjoy working with people, and thrive in a practical, hands-on role, this is a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference every day. As a Night Animal Care Assistant, you’ll work alongside our Night Veterinary Surgeon to help deliver a 24/7 service, providing essential care and support to pets and their owners when they need it most.

Blue Cross animal hospitals and pet care clinics play a vital role in providing veterinary treatment to sick and injured pets, particularly when their owners are unable to afford private veterinary fees. Our veterinary care services are accessible to pets whose owners receive certain means-tested benefits and reside within the catchment area of one of our animal hospitals or pet care clinics.

As an Animal Care Assistant, you have a key role in our fast-paced hospitals, providing a high standard of care to the pets in our hospitals and providing support to their owners. Each day will see you providing care to the pets in our hospitals which includes cleaning, feeding, exercising, grooming, laundry and administering treatment, dealing with clients on our reception, dispensing medication and taking payments. You will also be monitoring our patient’s health, wellbeing and behaviour as well as those recovering from anaesthetic.

This is full-time role working an average 42 hours a week with a one hour paid lunch break each day, you will be working on a rota to include weekends and public holidays. Due to the nature of the work of Blue Cross, and this post, it may be necessary to exceed these hours when the workload demands.

The rota for this role is as follows:

We’re looking for someone with hands-on experience in animal care, whether that’s in a vet practice or a kennel or similar setting. A genuine passion for animal welfare is at the heart of this role, so strong animal handling skills and a caring, compassionate approach are a must.

Working in a veterinary hospital can sometimes be emotionally challenging, so you'll be resilient, able to remain calm under pressure and have excellent bounce-back ability. You'll be emotionally intelligent, showing empathy and understanding when supporting both clients and colleagues.

You'll have a good understanding of the importance of maintaining a clean, safe and comfortable environment for animals and be willing to learn, follow direction and work within the boundaries of the role. You will also share our commitment to improving the lives of pets and the people who love them. Above all, you’ll be dedicated to giving animals the best possible care whilst being the only animal care assistant over-night supporting the Night Vet.

Knowledge, skills, and experience:

Although not essential, it would be great if you also had:

How to apply

Click the apply button below and complete the online application process before the closing date.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive an overwhelming response.

Using AI in your application
We’re happy for you to use AI tools to help you prepare your application, for example to organise your thoughts, improve clarity or check spelling and grammar. However, your application must be an honest reflection of your own skills, experience and achievements, and AI should not be used to write your application for you or create examples that aren’t your own.

Please read our guidance on using AI when applying to Blue Cross before submitting your application.

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:

To read more about the benefits Blue Cross has to offer, please visit the 'why work for us' page on our website.