Key Staff

Tara Spencer is the Manager

Tara has been a nurse for almost 11 years. She is a mental health trained nurse and originally started her career in adult mental health. After 5 years, Tara made the transition into dementia care and has never looked back as she felt she had finally found her calling in life.

Tara first joined the Skylarks family in 2018 as a night nurse and stayed until June 2020. She left briefly to join the NHS as their specialist mental health nurse in the acute medical hospital working in collaboration with the medical team to diagnose individuals with dementia and support the families with this transition. However, Skylarks has always held a special place in Tara’s heart and she was delighted to be asked to return; soon after her return taking up the position as Deputy Manager and then Manager. 

Tara is passionate about dementia care and truly feels privileged to be part of our individual family member’s journey, supporting them and working in a very personalised and innovative way.

Tara is excited to be working alongside such an incredible and dedicated team at Skylarks.

Maria Spollin is the Deputy Manager

Maria's early years were spent in Long Eaton, Northumberland, Leicestershire then Nottingham, primarily due to her Dad’s work in open cast mining. Her Mum was a nurse and when they moved to Nottingham her parents ran a residential home which shared the same philosophy as the Church Farm approach today. This was Maria's introduction to the world of care, as she spent every weekend for 2 years working as a care assistant in the family 'home' until she began her nurse training after leaving school.

When qualified, Maria worked on a medical ward specialising in children’s and occasionally adult cardiothoracic surgery at Glenfield Hospital. During her 20 plus years there, Maria did various specialist courses, including becoming a specialist in the most advanced form of life support available. Glenfield being the first of 5 centres in the UK to provide this level of support.

Since 1995 Maria has been involved with Church Farm through family links and attended a trip with some residents to Blackpool and also summer fetes and other social gatherings. Maria's previous experience helps her to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and to appreciate the need for privacy, dignity, patience for everyone living in the home.  

Away from work Maria keeps busy with her family life. In her spare time she likes to read a good crime novel.