Kemble at Home

Meet Martin, another one of our visiting carers - who celebrated his 10th anniversary with the company in August 2021 and joined us after initially retiring. Martin is one of those people who is really easy to talk to; he’s definitely a people person and he loves any opportunity to have a chinwag.

He was originally from Birmingham where he started off as an apprentice electrician. At the age of 21, he began his career with BT. He did a short stint of just some 37 years in total. It’s not very often these days you hear of someone staying in the same role for their entire working career. In 1990 he moved to the Madley BT station in Herefordshire as a sat comms power engineer.

In 2011 he was given the opportunity of taking voluntary retirement - who wouldn’t? Thinking at the age of 57 he would enjoy a relaxing retirement, “after 2 months I was bored, I needed something to get up for”. After speaking with his son, who at the time was working in social care (but now incidentally works for BT), he encouraged Martin to look into care work and recommended Kemble.
In August 2011 Martin joined the team at Kemble and in that time Martin has been both a carer and trainer, helping new employees at Kemble to find their feet. Some of the staff Martin has trained are still working for the company now.

How does he find being a carer? “You meet some really interesting people. I only go to gentlemen and they all have a life story to tell. We often compare notes as we are similar in age! I just enjoy meeting people and having a good chinwag”. Martin talks fondly about some of the clients he used to support and particularly enjoyed working alongside colleagues supporting clients.
When asked what would he say to someone in his shoes, looking for something to do part-time in retirement or semi-retirement he said “just give it a try, everyone is different with what they are happy doing. You are well supported at Kemble, the hours are good and I can fit my working hours around my home life and family”. The managers definitely know not to ask Martin for work on a Wednesday evening as Wednesdays are his wife’s night out for a meal!

Outside of work, Martin enjoys spending time with his family, especially his grandchildren. He’s heavily involved in the Hereford Rugby Club. He helped out in the juniors when his son was younger, he then became the 2nd Team Manager before becoming Fixture Secretary for a number of years. He now meets and greets opposition committee members on the 1st team match days both home and away.

Carly is one of our Visiting Care Co-ordinators and has been with us since 2009. There's not much Carly doesn't know about the ins and outs of the company. She works closely with two of our visiting care teams to ensure the smooth running of the rotas and that clients receive support from a familiar face.

Marisa started off as a visiting carer with Kemble ten years ago, and after two years, ended up becoming an on-call manager, where she was a point of contact for the out-of-hours. She then became a trainer and trained all the new carers in induction. Marisa then helped in the office. After a short while, she became a Live-in Care manager. For the last 2 years, she has been the Visiting Care manager for our South and West Teams and is close to completing her NVQ Level 5 in Adult Social Care.

Jason has been with Kemble for over 13 years and wears multiple hats. As well as being a Registered Manager, Jason is also our Head of Training & Development and runs our visiting care East and Ledbury teams alongside Carly.

Jason is - in some way - the most musically talented of our office staff. He initiated our Music Memories programme, which encourages people to explore the health benefits of music. He also plays the organ for local churches and leads a handbell ringing ensemble.

Dominic took over the day-to-day running of the business from Peter in 2021. Prior to joining Kemble, Dominic had a varied career as a civil servant, which included supporting the successful sale of British Steel in 2020 and running the Secretary of State for Business’s office during the Covid pandemic, leading on the business support schemes, workplace guidance and the purchasing of vaccines.

Dominic has recently moved to Ledbury with his wife and soon-to-be first child (due in June). He is a keen tennis player, an open water swimmer, and enjoys mowing his lawn!

Sharon and Michael King established Kemble Care in 1993. They retired from day-to-day management in 2009 but continue to be involved with strategic issues that concern the business.

Peter King, their eldest son, has been Managing Director since July 2009. Previously an Army Officer with the Royal Engineers, he set up and ran his own business before coming to Kemble Care. He was a director of the UKHCA — our national home care association — where he represented smaller providers of care.