Kemkare Limited

Updated 29 April 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This consisted of one inspector and an interpreter.

Service and service type

Kemkare Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 72 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 9 March 2022 and ended on 30 March 2022. We requested a range of policies and procedures that were sent to us by the provider between 9 and 11 March 2022. We visited the office location on 10 March 2022 to see the registered manager and to review records related to the service. We made calls to two people’s relatives and care workers between 15 March and 28 March 2022.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since they were registered. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return, which was submitted to us on 9 July 2021. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We also contacted the local authority commissioning team. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We reviewed a range of records related to two people’s care and support. This included care plans, risk assessments, medicines records and daily communication logs. We reviewed three staff files in relation to recruitment, training and supervision. We also reviewed records related to the management of the service, which included a training matrix and a range of quality assurance checks.

We spoke with four staff members. This included the registered manager and three care workers.

We made calls to both relatives as people were unable to fully communicate with us over the telephone. We were supported with an interpreter for one call to ensure the relative could be fully involved.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at further records related to the management of the service, which included minutes of team meetings and information related to people’s care and support. We also spoke with a health and social care professional who had experience of working with the service.

We provided formal feedback to the registered manager on 30 March 2022 via telephone and email.

Updated 29 April 2022

About the service

Kemkare Limited is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own homes.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

At the time of the inspection the provider was supporting eight people in the London Borough of Southwark, but only two people received personal care.

People’s care was funded through a local authority direct payment agreement. A direct payment is the amount of money that the local authority has to pay to meet the needs of people and is given to them to have control and choice over who they choose to provide their care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People’s relatives were happy with how the care and support was being delivered and felt the staff supported them with patience and compassion, which had helped to developed positive working relationships.

People’s care needs were assessed and care workers had a good understanding of people’s health and wellbeing and how they liked to be supported. Staff had clear information about people’s communication needs and samples of daily records showed their needs were being met.

People received person-centred care and records had information for care workers to follow to help keep people safe and support them to follow their interests. New staff were introduced to people and their relatives and completed shadowing and observation visits to ensure they had a good understanding of their care needs.

People were supported by staff who felt valued and fully supported in their role, especially during challenging periods of the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff were confident any necessary action would be taken and regularly discussed their role and key responsibilities.

Feedback was positive about the registered manager and relatives felt comfortable contacting them if they needed to discuss any aspects of their care. Relatives were confident they would be listened to and praised the levels of communication across the service.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service to ensure people received a good standard of care. The registered manager had regular contact with people, their relatives and the care workers.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The service was registered with us on 9 June 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

We carried out this inspection following a routine review of information we held about this service. Our intelligence indicated there may be a higher level of risk at this service due to the length of time it had been registered and not been inspected.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.