Tee Tatum, Mill View, Anchor

Launching a brand new monthly feature, CHP talks to Tee Tatum, manager of Anchor’s recently Outstanding rated Mill View, to find out her formula for great care

How did you join Anchor?

Up until nine years ago, I’d not considered a career in care, having worked in retail and manufacturing but everything changed when my husband became terminally ill and I became his full-time carer. The experience of losing him sparked my determination to give something back so I looked for a role in social care. I applied for a care assistant’s role at Ashcroft in Bradford and so began my journey with Anchor.

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What is special about Anchor?

The people, the passion and most importantly the residents who live in our fabulous homes. Anchor’s training has enabled me and others to develop a rewarding career in care.

What do you find most rewarding about your job?

Seeing the real difference we make to older people’s lives. There is huge value in putting the decisions about daily experiences, environment and lifestyle in the hands of the people who most matter – Mill View’s residents. It’s about listening to them and learning from their experiences so we can provide caring, person-centred support. It has enabled us to create a community where our residents feel safe, happy and engaged. Being able to offer comfort, reassurance and to inject creativity and joy into our residents’ lives has given me and my team a huge sense of pride.

What has been your proudest moment with Anchor?

Supporting the team, residents, families and community on our journey at Mill View, which was my first manager’s post, from our ‘inadequate’ CQC rating when I started at the home to receiving an ‘outstanding’ rating.

What has been your greatest challenge and how did you overcome it?

Our journey to become outstanding has been challenging in its entirety but I believe the key to achieving anything great is engagement and involvement which places great demands on your time but is so worthwhile: encouraging the team, families, residents and local people to create Mill View’s community requires lots of energy and commitment, but we were mindful to always put our residents at the heart of what we do.

Tell us three things you need to provide great care?

1) Great passion to enable residents to have a happy life at Mill View. 2) Listening is essential so colleagues and residents feel empowered and they feel their opinions and ideas are valued. Putting the residents at the heart of everything we do means listening actively to their feedback and taking action to make positive change. 3) Teamwork. My team have been able to demonstrate their creativity which has enabled us to unite towards a long-term goal and commitment together, to go above and beyond for our residents to create a community. I want Mill View to be a home where our residents feel happy and safe, and where my team want to work to achieve great things.

How do you relax at home?

Crafts, reading, and shopping.

If you have an outstanding home manager you would like to see featured in CHP, please contact Lee Peart at [email protected]