Three years of Kata Care (and a blog that’s 19 days late)

Written by Fae Mell, Managing Director

This birthday blog should have gone out on 31 October.

Today, as I am finally sitting down to write it, we are 19 days late. Very on brand for a company that spends more time helping other people get organised than shouting about ourselves.

In a way, that feels right. The reason this is late is the same reason Kata exists at all. We have been in the thick of it with our providers. Mock inspections, crisis calls, new registrations, interim placements, outstanding headhunts, last minute “can you just jump on a Teams?” moments that turn into proper game changers for services.

So, hello. I am Fae, and this is my slightly belated reflection on three years of Kata Care.

I don’t know where the time has gone to be honest. It flies when it’s filled with purpose. But my vision was the same three years ago as it is now; I wanted somewhere care providers could come and say: “Can you just help me sort this out?”, and they trust that we can.

That might be a gap in leadership, a quality issue, or no issue at all, as many of our clients are already providing outstanding care. They want an external pair of eyes to tell them what they are doing right, and if or how they can do it better. Mock inspections are great for that, by the way. They are our most requested service in 2025. They are not just a tick box exercise to say you have had an external quality audit; they are jam packed with value and support, and almost like a reset button for providers, registered managers and their teams. They help everyone get clarity on where they stand and what they need to do next to improve. It is a real morale booster.

  < That’s a little snapshot of our mock inspection report template, which I can confidently say is one of the best in the sector. Every client tells us how user-friendly it is, and [obviously] the content and actions are extremely beneficial.

You can read more about our mocks here

And if you’d like a chat about booking one for your service, get in touch.

So, what else do we do? Because mock inspections are great, but it is the support and guidance following the mock that really matters the most to me. I love to see the changes happen in real time; outcomes improve, teams flourish, and business owners get peace of mind that what they set out to do is working and making a positive difference for the people they support, care for, and employ. That is the impact.

That is where the rest of our consultancy work comes in. For some providers it is focused, practical pieces of work like care plan reviews, redesigning whole models of care, registered manager coaching, or monthly quality monitoring visits. For others it is a six month turnaround project, a three month interim manager while things settle, or us going out and finding a new permanent leader who fits the service and its values.

To do all of that, we have built a growing network of over a hundred care quality experts and interim managers. Ex CQC inspectors, senior quality and compliance professionals, registered managers, ex owner operators and operations leaders. A mix of people who know what good care looks like, what unsafe care looks like, and how to bridge the gap. Over the last three years we have built this team into what it is, giving us national reach across England, Scotland and Wales.

And while they are out in services, there is our small office team making it all happen. The people who answer the “have you got five minutes?” calls, juggle diaries, pull contracts together, chase references, keep the finance side in order, upload reports, fix tech gremlins, and generally stop me from trying to be in three places at once. Kayla, Warrick and Zoe – They are the ones behind the email addresses and phone numbers. Recruitment, IT and operations, admin and compliance, finance. The people who know our clients by name, remember the details, and care just as much about the outcome as the consultants on site. Kata would not exist without them and I couldn’t ask for a better team by my side.

Whatever shape the work takes, the theme is the same. We come in, get to the heart of what is happening, and work alongside you until it is better.

Speed.

Quality.

Certainty.

I love a good spreadsheet, so it would be rude not to include a few numbers.

In the last year, we have:

• Supported around 90 care providers across England, Scotland and Wales

• Worked with roughly 160 individual services, from small homes to larger portfolios

• Delivered 97 mock inspections and focused audits

• Provided interim management support to 15 services, from short stabilising pieces to full turnarounds

• Placed 17 registered managers and senior leaders into permanent roles

• Helped with around 20 CQC and CIW registration applications and variations

Each of those numbers is a story. A manager who finally feels supported. A provider who can sleep a bit better at night. A team who feel clearer about what good looks like. Someone’s life made…better. That is the bit that matters to me <3

Looking ahead

Three years in, I feel like we are just getting started.

The sector is not getting any easier. Recruitment is still tough, funding is still tight, expectations are (rightly) high, and CQC are… TBC (lol).

Our job at Kata Care is to keep meeting that reality with something useful.

For year four, that looks like:

• Going deeper with the providers we already work with, not just dipping in and out

• Continuing to build our network of care quality experts and interim managers so we can keep saying “yes” quickly when you need someone

• Developing more practical tools, templates and reports that make quality and governance feel easier, not heavier

• Supporting more managers into roles where they can actually thrive, not burn out

And there are a few new things I’m really excited about.

From now on, every registered manager placement we make will include a mini mock inspection or quality support day as part of the package. That gives the new manager a much better chance of settling in, understanding where the service stands from day one, and getting really clear on what needs to happen next. It also gives the provider a far better chance of keeping them. Everyone starts on the same page, with the same picture of reality, and a plan.

Behind the scenes, we’ve also been building our own in house reporting software, which we are so excited to pilot over the next few months with a select group of our consultants. The aim is simple: clearer reports, clearer actions, faster turnaround times. Consistency and accuracy that our clients can rely on.

Our core services will stay the same at heart. Mock inspections, audits, monthly quality monitoring, turnaround work, interim management, and permanent recruitment. But there are a lot of ideas in the pipeline to make all of them bigger, better and more valuable for our clients over the next year.

I’m also working on some digital courses so that every provider, even the smallest ones, can access our knowledge. Not everyone has the budget for a full consultancy project, but everyone deserves clear, practical guidance. I want there to be options for the big groups and the single home providers, the start ups and the established services.

We’ll keep listening, keep learning, and keep asking “what would actually help here?” rather than creating things that look clever and sit on a shelf.

I never want Kata Care to become a shiny consultancy that talks a good game but disappears when things feel hard. I want us to stay human, honest and useful.

Finally, a VERY big thank you.

Thank you to the providers who have invited us in this year, whether it was for a one off piece of work or something longer term. Letting someone look closely at your service, your paperwork and your culture is a big step. We really do appreciate it.

Thank you to the registered managers, deputies, team leaders and support workers who have walked us round, answered questions, been honest about what is hard and stayed open to change. You are the reason any of this matters.

Thank you to our consultants and interim managers for stepping into services, often at short notice, and doing the real day to day work of improvement. The travel, the reports, the difficult conversations, the calm in the middle of other people’s stress. We see it.

Thank you to every registered manager who trusted us with their next chapter.

And a big thank you to our head office team for keeping everything moving in the background. The graft, the late nights, keeping up the pace with this growing small business. Kata Care would not function without you, it is as simple as that.

Three years in, I am really proud of what we are building together.

If you are reading this (and managed to get through it all haha), and think you might need a bit of support, a fresh pair of eyes, or someone to walk alongside you for a while, you are very welcome to get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

Fae