Infinity Care Limited

Updated 31 October 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 2 inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

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

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 26 April 2023 and ended on 11 May 2023. We visited the location’s office on 26 April and 3 May 2023.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection we looked at information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 2 people who used the service and 5 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 6 members of staff including the registered manager, assistant manager, administration officer and staff members. We had written feedback from a further 5 members of staff, including 3 staff members contracted to provide live in care. We looked at a range of records. This included 5 people’s care and medicines records, 5 staff recruitment files and the provider’s policies and procedures.

Updated 31 October 2023

About the service

Infinity Care Limited is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people in their own homes through live-in and domiciliary care. At the time of our inspection there were 23 people using the service. 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.

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

The provider did not always identify risks to people’s health and safety. When risk assessments were completed, they did not always include clear measures to reduce risks to people. This exposed people to a risk of avoidable harm.

The provider did not have effective systems and processes in place to ensure people were protected from the risk of abuse and improper treatment. The provider did not complete robust investigations to allegations of abuse or identify potential abuse and improper treatment. However, people and relatives told us they felt safe with staff.

Medicines were not managed safely. Safe staff recruitment practices were not always followed to ensure staff were suitable to work with people. The provider did not identify learning or areas for improvement when things went wrong, to reduce the risk of future incidents.

People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests. Best practice guidance was not used to inform care plans. Staff felt they had enough training, however they did not receive training for people’s individual needs, such as diabetes or catheter care.

Staff told us they felt supported and received regular feedback. People were encouraged to eat and drink, and staff were aware of their preferences. The provider was not always consistent when supporting people to access healthcare services and support.

The provider did not understand the regulatory requirements and was not aware of relevant legislation. There were no robust systems and processes to assess and monitor safety and quality, which meant concerns weren’t identified and people were at risk of receiving unsafe care. Policies did not reflect current legislation or best practice. We have made a recommendation about this.

Despite the concerns we found, it was clear the provider and staff team cared about the people they supported. We received good feedback from people and relatives about staff and management.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 5 September 2018).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the management and reporting of incidents and safeguarding concerns, handling of complaints, robust management oversight and whether the provider was supporting people in line with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has changed from good to inadequate based on the findings of this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, effective and well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Infinity Care Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement and recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to risk management, medicines management, safeguarding, recruitment, governance, consent, notification of incidents and complaints. We have made a recommendation about duty of candour.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Special Measures

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe and there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.