Invictus Plus Care

Updated 4 March 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.

This was a targeted inspection to check whether the provider had met the requirements of the Warning Notice in relation to Regulation 17 (Good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type

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

Registered Manager

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

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection, including actions plans submitted by the provider. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). 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 of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We reviewed records relating to care and support for 4 people and a range of management and quality assurance records. We spoke with the registered manager, 3 members of the management team. Following our visit to the office we spoke on the telephone with 3 people who used the service, 3 relatives, 3 members of staff and 4 health and social care professionals.

Updated 4 March 2023

About the service

Invictus Plus Care Ltd is a domiciliary care and supported living service providing the regulated activity personal care. At the time of our inspection there were 42 people using the service and 23 were receiving personal care.

The provider’s office is located in Trowbridge and provides care and support to people living in the local area.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability or who are autistic.

People were placed at risk of avoidable harm because medicines were not always managed safely. Staff were not always testing for Covid-19 in line with the most recent published guidance and this increased the risk of the spread of infection. One person’s choking risk assessment was not sufficient. The provider attended safeguarding meetings when required and staff knew how to identify potential safeguarding concerns and what to do if abuse was witnessed or suspected. People were offered the opportunity to feedback about the service they received.

The provider had not always operated checks and audits to identify errors, shortfalls and omissions. There was no oversight of accidents, incidents and safeguarding concerns. The registered manager had a clear vision for the service and worked with healthcare professionals as the need arose. The registered manager was aware of their responsibility to act openly and honestly when things went wrong. The provider had recently introduced learning disability and autism training to ensure staff had the skills and knowledge to support people effectively.

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 01 October 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the management of potential safeguarding concerns. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led.

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 requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe 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 Invictus Plus Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, audits and checks at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

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

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. 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.