Baby I Love You Limited is operated by Baby I Love You Limited. The service is a single speciality independent healthcare provider offering 2D, 3D and 4D wellbeing and growth health screening and imaging to self-funding or private people who use the services.

Baby I Love You is situated in a small ground floor business unit on the riverside of South Shields. The studio is wheelchair accessible and has designated car parking at the front of the building. People who use the services entering the unit are escorted directly into a large waiting area which opens into a scanning room, manager’s office and small staff kitchen area. The central reception has adequate seating and a reception desk with piped music. Toilets were provided for people who use the services, along a small corridor near to the front entrance.

The studio provides a screening and ultrasound scan service for people individuals aged 16 to 65 in relation to pregnancy (from seven weeks through to full term), including reassurance and gender scans, and early bonding experiences. In addition the provider offers heartbeat teddy bears and gender reveal balloons.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the short-announced inspection on 10 January 2019. We had to conduct a short-announced inspection because the service was only open if people who used the services required it.

To get to the heart of service users’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Services we rate

We had not previously inspected this service.

This is the first time we have rated this service. We rated it as Good overall because:

• The service provided mandatory training in key skills to all staff and made sure everyone completed it.

• The service controlled infection risk well.

• The service had suitable premises and equipment and looked after them well.

• The service provided care and treatment based on national guidance and evidence of its effectiveness. The service made sure staff were competent for their roles.

• Staff cared for people who use the services with compassion.

• Staff involved people who use the services and those close to them in decisions about their care and treatment.

• People could access the service when they needed it.

• The service treated concerns and complaints seriously, investigated them and learned lessons from the results, and shared these with all staff.

• Managers at all levels in the service had the right skills and abilities to run a service providing high-quality sustainable care.

• The service had a vision for what it wanted to achieve and workable plans to turn it into action, which it developed with staff, people who use the services, and local community groups.

• Managers across the service promoted a positive culture that supported and valued staff, creating a sense of common purpose based on shared values.

  Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with the regulations and that it should make other improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. We also issued the provider with one requirement notice(s) that affected the service. Details are at the end of the report.

  Ellen Armistead

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (North)