We inspected Caremark (Richmond upon Thames) on 22 February 2018. This was an announced inspection. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because the registered manager was often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they, or a delegated representative, would be in.

Caremark (Richmond upon Thames) is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and domestic support to people living in their own homes in the community. It was providing a service to 51 people at the time of this inspection.

Not everyone using Caremark (Richmond upon Thames) receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with 'personal care'; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.

Caremark (Richmond upon Thames) was registered with the Care Quality Commission in April 2017. This comprehensive inspection was the first inspection carried out on the service.

A registered manager was in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People and their relatives told us that they had had a very positive experience in receiving care and support. They described the staff as “lovely”, “very good”, “very helpful” and “friendly”. They told us that the service was of high quality, that it was personalised to people’s individual needs and responsive to any changes that people wished to make.

People and their relatives told us that they had regular staff visiting who were punctual and communicated well with them. People knew how to raise concerns and felt that managers and staff were approachable. There was a procedure in place for people to follow if they wanted to raise any issues.

People were supported by staff who were trained and well supported in their job roles. Staff members had been safely recruited and had received an induction to the service. There were systems to safeguard people from abuse and staff completed safeguarding training and knew how to report any concerns.

Staff had access to personal protective equipment (PPE) for the prevention and control of infection.

Staff had received training in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and understood the importance of gaining people’s consent before assisting them.

The service completed assessments of people’s needs and these were used to create the care plan for each person. The service kept people’s needs under review and made changes as required.

The service promoted a culture that was person centred, open and inclusive and had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and the experience of people who used it.