Our team at
Scarlet House

Becoming Deputy Manager at Scarlet House has been the highlight of my career so far. Before this, I was working as Team Leader. I really wanted an opportunity to progress in my career, and that’s something Care UK has offered.

As Deputy Manager, it’s important to be caring, compassionate and have a good eye for detail. You also need to have good interpersonal skills and be diligent, hardworking and committed to the home.

I love seeing the residents enjoying activities in the home – it's my favourite part of my working day. I’m proud to work with a fantastic team who make a difference in residents’ day-to-day lives.

Outside of work, I enjoy family life, and my other interests include music and cars.

I’ve been a part of the Care UK team since 2008. I worked within mental health services before I started at Scarlet House care home.

There are a lot of skills that come handy in this role, including good communication, listening and a good sense of humour! Most importantly, to have a passion for making a difference to peoples lives.

I love those times in my role, when I am delivering activity sessions and having one to one interactions and the residents are enjoying themselves or are engaging enthusiastically.

My biggest career highlight has been whilst working at Scarlet House. I was able to arrange for one of our residents, who was living with dementia, to return to High Grove House, the country residence of King Charles, as he worked there before retirement.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my Selkirk Rex cat Mabel who is a bit of a character! I also enjoy reading, knitting and watching films and television (especially The Carry on films).

Before I joined the Scarlet House team, I spent 33 years working in award-winning restaurants and hotels, catering for events and weddings and generally cooking fresh food in busy environments.

I wanted to move into the care sector for a new challenge and the opportunity to cook and create dishes from scratch using fresh produce. I also wanted to be part of a team enhancing older people’s lives. This is my second time working for a care provider, I absolutely love it.

The favourite part of my day is getting feedback from the residents, it’s very fulfilling to be serving the residents and giving them the dishes, they enjoy and that do them good. My proudest achievement to date has been in the Michelin guide and been awarded two knives and forks.

I joined Care UK in 2015 because I wanted to make a difference to older people’s lives and help them to live each day to the full. I started as a hostess and moved across to the kitchen team to work as a catering assistant. I then became a receptionist and administrator, and now I’m a BA. I love how I’ve had every opportunity to try different roles and see what I enjoy the most. Care UK is great at supporting its colleagues to learn and develop.

As Business Administrator, I need to be efficient, organised and approachable. This role combines lots of different tasks and demands different skills. Given that I’ve worked in a number of different roles, I’ve had a steep learning curve to navigate a lot of the time. It’s important to be positive about learning, and to admit when you don’t understand something. The Scarlet House team is really supportive and helpful. There’s always someone who can advise and lend a hand.

I always enjoy seeing the residents, finding out how they are and making them smile and laugh. Any time I can spend with them is time well spent.  

When I first looked into Care UK, I could see that I could really progress my career within the organisation while providing outstanding care to residents. I’ve completed my Level 3 lead adult care worker apprenticeship through Care UK, as well as in-depth training on Care UK’s dementia care approach to become Scarlet House’s Dementia Care Coach.

In this role, you need to be passionate about care work, patient, flexible, caring and empathetic. The most important parts of my role are ensuring my team and I provide outstanding care and coaching the team to provide dignified support to residents who live with dementia.

I joined Care UK in 2022, as I wanted a career change from vehicle rentals. When I met the staff at Scarlet House it felt like home. I am the first-person families and visitors see when they walk through the doors, I am there to greet them with a big smile as I welcome them into the home. 

My favourite part is building relationships with residents and their families as well as the team here at Scarlet House. In my spare time I enjoy spending quality time with my family and friends.

Scarlet House is a lovely care home, I enjoy spending time with the residents who live here and love the homely atmosphere. The management really understand how good Scarlet House is and can be.

In a housekeeping role, you need to be friendly, hardworking and approachable. I think it’s also important to be yourself.

I take pride in completing all my tasks each day and in working with a good team.

Outside of work, I like watching Gloucester and England rugby, going clay pigeon shooting and spending time with my family.

My background has always been in maintenance as I love the challenge of the variety of jobs you can be doing day to day.

Whilst being at Care UK I have enjoyed lots of training including first aid, fire warden trained and more, which has helped support my course in plumbing to ensure that I can help with a range of maintenance issues. To do my role well I believe that you need to be friendly, calm, caring, talkative and adaptable to ensure that I’m doing my job to the best of my ability. 

The best part of my day is talking to lots of different people and listening to residents stories from the past, some of the residents have lived some extraordinary lives.

When I’m not working I enjoy football, playing pool with friends and gaming.