senior care assistant

deputy manager

head chef

care team leader

care manager

Anchor Trust

Been Working as a care assistant here for just over 4 years now and you have your good days and bad days as in most care roles. The residents are lovely, you have some challenging behaviour but nothing that you can’t handle as a team. Co workers are in most lovely, it is varied though. I found similar to other reviews of anchor that everyone is clique and are always talking behind your back and the majority of the workforce are all related to each other or know each other. Thought it was just my anchor home but seems it is a nationwide problem of nepotism that reaches up the ranks into home manager, district manager and even higher. So if you have an issue with other staff it is hard to know where to turn. Regularly have to just let it go at your own expense. You have a lot to do for what your pay is, it doesn’t match. You do care but you are also a laundry maid, a cleaner, a waitress and a bin man. and you have to do it all in a very short space of time, your multi tasking skills have to be on point to survive. On to Management, management is poor, they have periods where they are super on top of everything and super nice and helpful and that seems to be around the time of staff or resident surveys, visitors, prospective clients coming to have a tour, inspections or when a complaint has been filed. The mood soon changes though and they get mean again. It’s all Similar problems in management to other Anchors around the country, also not giving holiday, piling on more responsibilities, constant changing of rules and regulations every single day. Sometimes these changes defy all logic but it is never questioned or discussed,  Except between care staff.  Everytime I come on shift something has changed. There is bullying happening to a small amount of staff and we are all aware of it and no one is doing anything because we don’t know if we will lose our jobs if we stand up to it. What else? Oh yeh, the micromanagement of care staff by managers and some team leaders is beyond insane they talk to you like you are children and that is the atmosphere that they create of a power mad parent and we are feel like scared children. Instead of rewarding good work they punish for simple mistakes such as not having taken a bin out at the right time because you were busy with care and threaten disciplinaries constantly. You feel in fear of them. They will literally walk up to your floor unannounced look around the floor and just find things to pick at about what you are doing or not doing and ask on the spot questions to trip you up. However, to be fair it isn’t everyday they are doing this so that’s manageable I guess. So, Anchor as a company either favours negative reinforcement and encourages it, or the managers are just very bad at their jobs. Overall I would say probably don’t work here. But unfortunately it is the best of a bad bunch there is much worse out there in care so if you want to work in care it’s probably the better one. So just do your job and then go home and try not to take anything they say to heart. Oh and don’t be a volunteer to pick up extra shifts! They won’t stop bothering you day and night lol. 

I worked with Anchor for around 3 years and really enjoyed my job. A typical day would include assisting customers with personal care, supporting breakfast and medication, activities through the day in the communal area, supporting lunch time, and then the supporting with customer needs throughout the day. All the task mentioned above may not apply to all that use the service, some customers just require some quality time spent with them, which a lot of us enjoyed the most. I learnt a lot during my time anchor the most important being upholding dignity and respectfulness at all times. 

In most cases I believe management were very good when it came to the needs of the customers, trying the best to always keep there needs to the best quality. However I don't believe the management support their staff very well in certain situation. My personal experience in departing with Anchor was not very pleasant, and extremely unfair. I was made to feel unvalued and communication was poor.  

From my experience I found staff to be really supportive and helpful. If there were any concerns or help required, staff would try their upmost best to support you. I have made a lot of good friends with Anchor. 

In healthcare the hardest part of the job would be assisting a customer reaching end of life. You form some great relationships with them and it is very sad to see them not as you knew them before. You do your very best to ensure they are as comfortable as possible, keeping a cheerful spirit, which can be hard to do when you see them deteriorating. 

The job as whole is very enjoyable, supporting people holistically can be very rewarding. Being professional at all times is very important, but working with people for along time forms some great relationships, all most like a family unit.

A Typical Day at Work
A typical day involved a high workload with immediate pressure from management. While the role itself had potential to be fulfilling, the demands placed on new employees without adequate training made it challenging.

Management
Unfortunately, my experience with the very inexperienced area manager was negative. There was a lack of empathy and understanding, particularly around personal circumstances, and the management style contributed to a poor working culture within the team.

Workplace Culture
The culture within the team was difficult, with high expectations and minimal support. However, I did work with some great colleagues across Anchor who were genuinely helpful and made the role more bearable.

The Hardest Part of the Job
The biggest challenge was being thrown into a demanding workload at the service that hadn't had a fulltime manager for over 10 months after just three days of shadowing. The pressure from management and the frustration from tenants—due to systemic issues beyond my control—made it difficult to provide the level of service I wanted for the tenants.

The Most Enjoyable Part of the Job
The tenants themselves were lovely, and interacting with them was the best part of the job. Their appreciation for any help I could provide made a real difference.

Overall Recommendation
Anchor as a company may offer good opportunities, but I would not recommend working in the North Tyneside region under the current management. The experience could be vastly improved with better training, support, and a more empathetic leadership approach.


I worked at Greenhive. Anchor is a good company but there are always problems with your payment. It is always short and makes you hate the role. The workload you have is too much to allow being robbed monthly. To get your money back you have to go through to so many different people some who do not respond and just ignore. As soon as you go to payroll directly they direct you back to the same incompetent people. Then you are considered to be the one making issues. Those same individuals would hate not being paid correctly. The downfall is the HR and payroll department. Very unhelpful. 

The other side is having a manager who is constantly in a bad mood. This ruined the team culture and makes you not want to come back to work. 

The positive side is the lovely residents you are looking after. This would probably be the reason you stay. No amount of increased payment or bonuses would make your stay. Especially when in the end you won't see the payment. Your payment could be as short as 40%. Now imagine that would you want to work for free alongside an angry manager?.

You also have to take into account the obvious signs of favouritism. Managers who seem to show favouritism to staff and in return they get benefits. Including choosing when to work and ensuring their roster is not changed. Other staff on the other hand have to work like a dog. Except for last-minute changes to your shifts. You have to be flexible but others don't have to be.
Expect the manager to shout at you but the favourite staff would not experience this.

If you're happy with the above you would enjoy working at Greenhive.

The management in this home are loving and caring. You know,that no matter what you can go to them and speak to them about problems and they will try and help no matter what. Management try to accommodate rotas around people's others jobs or college life/uni. They are so helpful and always welcome staff with open hands. They support and show staff that they are good and praise them. 
Like all homes staff phone in sick but management try their best to cover all shifts that peope have phoned in for. They bend over backwards, and management are on call 24, 7. No matter what, they will come in and cover shifts them self's.
Staff are always aware of their starting their shift and finishing. Yes they work 7 hour shifts or 14 hour shifts but they never stay on to do a 10 hour shift after a 14 hour shift. Staff may choose to sleep in on a night shift. 
Management like to give everyone a chance, from the age of 16 which is in anchor policies, that they are allowed to employ school leaves as long as they have a risk assessment. They give everyone a chance to show that they are able to work! I mean how can you get experience if no place will employ you with our experience. 
Management may employ family and friends but like everyone they go through the same procedure! Interview and test just like every other person they employ!
Management treat all members of staff with respect and always support them no matter what. They are one of the best management I know and I'm proud to be employed by them. 
The wage is good, but that's not the reason many of use work there. We work to keep the residents happy not because of the pay.

I have 6 months experience in a role with this Business and have a few friends who work as carers, from a carer point of view it is a nice environment to work in but the work can be demanding and is poorly paid, but there ARE great advancement opportunities if you'r looking for a role in Care.
Despite the poor pay there are good aspects to the role such as the reward for being there to help and listen to older people. And the training for people who wish to progress is good, as well as there being many opportunities for overtime, which YOU WILL be asked to do, often! They also run Zero Hours contracts.
Working in this environment can also be very hard on you physically especially if you work in a Dementia Care environment in which case I would not recommend work as carer on current pay scales if it's a full time job you're looking for unless you are single and prepared to work unsociable hours.
There is NO SICK PAY as of Jan 2015 even though you will be off sick at some point and possibly due to a back injury, but there is paid holidays. If you are injured in the work place while working for these companies I would definitely make a claim as you don't receive sick pay.

This is not a view of the Care Industry as a whole, other Companies will be managed differently.

If you're looking for an office based role then I understand Anchor is a good company to work for, but they are a Care provider.

worked in maintenance at Meadow court . I set up the department from construction handover as a new development , and had the building running smoothly and in a very orderly fashion  .It was a bit  boring at the start but I grew to love it .The big problem came when a new Estate Manager took over , she soon turned out to be a person to be wary of . She quickly became unliked by the vast majority of residents and their families including the staff . The relationship between myself and her eventually broke down after it was discovered I was on the wrong contract , I was told to sign a new lower grade contract or be sacked! . I handed my notice in the next day and accepted the offer of a new job in maintenance somewhere else . The next day when I came to work I had a frank conversation with the Estate Manager who very soon ran out of lies and excuses , then when she could not defend her untruths anymore she fabricated a complete lie and suspended me!. 
This turned into payment in luie of notice and that was the end of my career at Anchor. 
It would be easy to dismiss my comments as someone having an axe to grind or a grudge against a manager , truth be known if anyone from HR were to ask residents or staff about this woman ,, it would become pretty clear Im telling the truth . This Manager has done her best to blacken my reputation, however the messages and phone calls of support from residents and their families and work collegues would suggest she has failed. 
This would be a great place to work if this manager was not there.
I would steer well clear of Meadow court if I were you .

My typical day consisted of caring for the elderly residents of St Ediths Court care home. I would start a morning shift by waking my residents and depending on their needs, I would assist them with washing, clothing, applying any creams and making them look nice and smart in order to take on the day. I would then either escort them to the dining room to eat breakfast, or assist some of our less able residents with feeding. The rest of my morning would consist of going around the home and making sure everyone is up and dressed and tidying rooms. I would make the bed and if necessary change the sheets. I would always empty waste paper and bins in the bathroom, and refill the residents jugs meaning they have fresh water at all time. Throughout the morning I would check in on my residents and regularly take them refreshments including tea, coffee and always a cheeky biscuit! I love my job because it is very rewarding. Although it may be physically tiring I love to interact with the residents every day and I always go home with a sense of achievement. The relationships I have formed with both residents and fellow colleagues is something really special to me, and I feel privileged to have a job that I can fully say that I love. Unfortunatly I am aware that many people cannot say the same. My co-workers and management make the job so easy and we all work together as a team meaning that everyday is fun, productive and enjoyable.

 I could write an amazing review of the home I manage but that would be biased so I will review my experience of the company as a whole. I have worked for various care providers but I can hand on heart say that they would not have supported me as much as Anchor have done during this pandemic. The role has been eye opening to say the least but the guidance I have had has been amazing and helped our home to deal with Covid-19 in a safe way. We have had twice weekly briefings on changes in guidelines and protocol, the senior management have been really supportive if I have had any queries or just needed clarification on how best to deal with difficult situations. Our home has had a high staff turnover but this is due to us being proactive and acting on concerns raised by residents and staff to ensure we keep everyone safe. Anchor really do put the residents at the heart of all that we do. I manage a fantastic team who go that extra mile to make a real difference to the lives of those we care for. I have support from other home managers, we have an excellent recruitment team and Human resources team. The rates of pay for our roles are well about the NMW with good opportunities for career progression. I started my employment with Anchor as a Deputy and progressed after 3 years to my current role but you do need to be prepared to show commitment to your role in order to progress further.

The day to day role of the job is enjoyable. A typical day in the office is managing my daily workload  which consists of lettings work (working waiting list, arranging viewing appointments, liaising with Local authorities and Location Managers within Anchor), Finance work (working through a number of arrears cases that are at different stages within our arrears escalation policy, issuing refunds for accounts in credit, chasing missing housing benefits payments from the councils), answering calls that come through (these calls vary from customer to customer), completing emails that come into my inbox (ensuring worked with service level) and dealing with s any post that comes in at specific day too. 

The co-workers and members within the team are great. We have a good working relationships, where even though we get our heads down to complete our workload, we also find time to engage among each other to ensure that we have the prefect work/lifestyle balance. It makes your day a lot more pleasurable when you can have a laugh and chat at work. 

The hardest part of the job is not knowing how the day will pan out. You have a set workload to complete each day, however the days can vary depending on the volume of calls that come into the office. Sometimes it can be quite stressful, as this job role I do at the moment isn't your typical call-centre advisor, every call we take there is a administrative job to complete in the background once you have ended the call.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Senior care assistant 7 salaries reported	£13.17 per hour
Deputy manager 14 salaries reported	£15.56 per hour
Head chef 12 salaries reported	£14.98 per hour
Care team leader 1 salary reported	£14.56 per hour
Care manager 4 salaries reported	£36,838 per year

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